Summary

The Fireplace – The author writes of how Emerson, shortly before he died, closed up his office himself. She imagines him shutting down the fire in his fireplace, “gripping the poke, edging the ashes, nosing at the deep orange embers” (283). She comments on how Emerson’s writing often referred to smaller fires merging into larger flame – the creative impulse merging with the larger world of the spirit. She then recalls several images of orange and flame – sunrises, sunsets, her father comforting her mother as she cries out for orange throughout the night.

Well of Mercy – The author travels to a convent-based writing retreat called The Well of Mercy, but in spite of the welcoming generosity of the nuns, finds herself panicking at the thought of being absent from her family and from her life. She walks through the forest (contemplating how...