“Stars on Fire”

By Diane Thiel

Stars on Fire

It happens like that—turning

one day down a different highway

going west as west will go,

tracing burning star to star

with our fingertips

the day we find water—

that opening when all the trails

of earth and sky are visible

for just an instant,

and suddenly, we are out there

in a desert shower

watching stars on fire.

Diane Thiel is the author of ten books of poetry and nonfiction, including Echolocations and Resistance Fantasies. Her new book of poetry, Questions from Outer Space, is forthcoming from Red Hen Press in Spring 2022. Thiel's work has appeared in many journals, including Poetry, The Hudson Review, the Notre Dame Review and Rattle and is re-printed in over sixty major anthologies. Her awards include a PEN award, the Robinson Jeffers Award, the Robert Frost Award, the Nicholas Roerich Award, and she was a Fulbright Scholar. Thiel received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Brown University and is Professor of English and Associate Chair at the University of New Mexico. Thiel has traveled and lived in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, working on literary and environmental projects. For more information, please visit her website: www.dianethiel.net