The RSVP: A Response to the Invitation

I am not certain exactly why, but ever since first reading "The Invitation" I have had these words roiling about within me. Somethings maybe should Not be writ, yet once I think a thought, I cannot unthink it unless it is written.

The piece that follows has no hidden meanings that I am overtly aware of. Yet, I had to write it - if for no other reason then to purge it from my being as I danced in my own fire. The RSVP then:

The RSVP:

I have stood alone in the night
and heard the madman howl.
I have stood alone in the night,
and realized it was only the echoes
of my own howling.

I am no Oriah,
and this no Invitation.

Yet when I read your posting
I was moved first to awe,
then to desire,
and finally shame.

Shame for the scribbled wittings
I have littered the web with;
shame for the desires that burned the soul.

You see,
I would tall you that I,
I have stood within the fire.
My soul immersed in all that I am,
all that I cannot escape,
all that I am not.

I have stood in the fire
as each layer of delusion and illusion
smoked away until all that was left,
was nothing more than
me.

I have danced in the flames
with the desires of a child until,
at last,
that desire was washed clean
from all that I am.

I have danced in the fire
until nothing was,
except the nothing.

I have felt the pain of youth
sting an ancient man,
watching his soul
crisped and smoked.

I have danced amongst the flame
and looked in the mirror
of my desires.

I have howled in the ecstasy of
those desires until at last,
wasted and charred
by the same,
I was nothing but smoking ash reborn.

I have stood in the flames
while weeping the bitterness of love,
and cursing the sweet pleasures of solitude.

I have known what it is to be loved,
and it is sad.
I have known what it is to be hated,
and it is good.

I have danced in the fire
until nothing was left to dance.
I have howled the words
until nothing was left to howl.

And still I danced.
And still I howled.

I wonder
how long shall I dance?
How long shall I howl?
I wonder
if I dance, howl
loudly
longly,
enough will hear another's howl at last?