A man making candles out of beeswax

Purify the wax, rid it of the dross,
melt it, all the while knowing its power
to burn if not handled with care.

Wick the molds, fill the molds, cool the molds,
remove the candles, inspect them, all the while
knowing that your mistakes are never permanent.

Remelt, remold, reform once more.

Now you see your words wax and wane
and wax again and again on the page,
all the while knowing their impermanence.

The search, the quest, the process. The
intricate extended process.
Rebelliousness of inner hopes.

Today’s Impromptu prompt from Matt Trease asked us to write an astrological self-portrait by first creating a natal chart and then using the degree data from that chart to determine symbolic information related to the specific details of our birth. The challenge was to create a poem using, or inspired by the language found in this information. Matt provided two sites to help us interpret the symbols: Inside Degrees by Elias Lonsdale and The Degrees of the Zodiac and the Sabian Symbols by Dane Rudhyar. The lines in italics in my poem are taken directly from these sources.