Is this an ember that glows in gashes?

The soot is lifted with each blow of breath

That touches the core of heat

To transform the gray lumps.

In life’s furnace, one stays cold and dull,

Never touched by outside drafts

Until the pain of loss and shock of grief

Wafts the dull coating away

And fires up heart’s core

And awakens the nerve ends.

And as bellows blow air into

The tranquil, insipid coal chunks,

The cold furnace comes alive.

Fired up, the coal gleams and shines

Into a fiery, hot, ruddy gem.

It is alive and pain lashes

In the glowing slashes.

Awakening powers

That rise from within.

A sun for the moment,

Coal gives out its life,

To those it nurtures,

Heat to sustain,

And warmth to enfold

Those who gather around.