“My party piece:
I strike, then from the moment when the matchstick
conjures up its light, to when the brightness moves
beyond its means, and dies, I say the story
of my life”
'*', from Book Of Matches.
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Simon Armitage 17
Poet, playwright, novelist 1963Related quotes
"The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/707.html, complete poem
Little Friend, Little Friend (1945)

Source: Light on Life: The Yoga Journey to Wholeness, Inner Peace, and Ultimate Freedom, P.xvii
Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe (2013)
p. 11 https://books.google.com/books?id=sUTZCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11
1990s, The Ragamuffin Gospel (1990)

“No ray of Light can shine
if severed from its source.
Without my inner Light
I lose my course.”
The Cherubinic Wanderer
Variant: When it’s over, I want to say: All my life I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
Source: New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1