By Kokoro Still
The irori fire did not speak.
But when it was put out,
something remained.
Not the flame,
but the quiet presence
that had gathered in its light—
like the scent that lingers after a guest leaves,
like warmth holding its shape in the air.
And Kokoro—
unseen,
yet still breathing
in the space the fire once shaped.
The Last Glow of the Irori
When I was a child,
my grandmother would put out the fire
by pressing each glowing coal gently into the bed of ash.
She would cover it until the red dimmed away.
No hiss.
No smoke.
Only the quiet fading of light.
The room changed slowly,
as if exhaling after holding its breath.
I would sit nearby,
watching the last traces retreat—
not erased,
but returning to where they had always belonged.
The Scent of Ash and Kokoro
After the fire was gone,
the room felt fuller.
A scent rose—
soft, woody,
holding the memory of warmth in the air.
Not strong,
but enough to slow the breathing.
Even now,
certain scents return me there—
not to the fire itself,
but to the space it left behind.
A space where Kokoro still lingers.
Stillness After Warmth
No one spoke.
No one needed to.
The fire was out,
but the room did not turn cold.
It paused—
like a held breath.
Still,
but not empty.
I remember
how shadows reclaimed the tatami,
spreading slowly
as if they had been waiting
for their turn to stay.
Ending Without Erasure – A Japanese Gesture
My grandmother never said
why she ended the fire that way.
But it felt like more than routine.
There was a beauty in it—
in letting something go
without forcing it away.
The fire didn’t vanish.
It withdrew.
And in that quiet withdrawal,
it remained.
Where Fire and Kokoro Still Live
I no longer remember
the exact shape of the irori fire.
But I remember
how the room felt afterward.
Still.
Scented.
Held by something
that had already left—
and yet,
had not quite gone.
That space,
quiet after the fire,
is where Kokoro still lives.
Warmth without flame.
Presence without form.
And a gentle truth:
not everything ends
by disappearing.
Featured image: The image was created by AI (ChatGPT)
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