Heat exists as energy in transit,
something spontaneous, volatile, elementary,
“something which may be transferred from one body
to another” (James Clerk Maxwell, “Theory of Heat”).
Notice how it moves from an object with a high
temperature to an object with a lower one,
a process of thermal contact, the sun
burning through the coldest morning sky.
Heat increases and flows across boundaries.
It is ancient, fluctuating, vibrational,
like these summer days that are so combustible
and these nights when stars enlighten the skies.
….
— EDWARD HIRSCH, author
of “The Living Fire: New and
Selected Poems”