Scholaris Erratus was inspired in part by Eiseley’s essay “Man the Firemaker,” found in The Star Thrower.
Man . . . is himself a flame. He has burned through the animal world and appropriated its vast stores of protein for his own.
“Erratus” wrote several poems that he says engage a similar metaphor.
The Fireman saw sunflowers
in Minnesota,
icarus sunflowers
on the northern shores
of the Mississippi,
a thousand flowers,
a thousand voices saying
yes
saying
we will sing in September,
knowing the cold awaits us
from “The Fireman Saw Sunflowers” by Richard Smyth.
