Word Prompts
20.08.2026
Writing Prompt: FIRE
This year, it sometimes feels as though our planet is on fire.
Here in Spain, we have watched devastating forest fires sweep across huge areas of the country. July alone became the worst July for burned land in the records used by the European wildfire monitoring system.
Images of flames, exhausted firefighters, evacuations and landscapes turned black have become far too familiar.
Here on Fuerteventura, our landscape is different.
We don’t have the vast forests found on mainland Spain. Our island is dry, volcanic and open, with far fewer trees.
Yet somehow, fire still seems to be everywhere.
Almost every week, it feels as though there is another story on the news.
A bus on fire.
A building burning.
Smoke rising somewhere it shouldn’t.
Another reminder of how quickly an ordinary day can change.
Fire is strange that way.
For thousands of years, humans have depended on it.
Fire gave us warmth.
Light.
Cooked food.
Protection.
We gather around it for comfort, watching flames dance while feeling strangely peaceful.
Yet the same element that warms our homes can destroy them.
Perhaps that is why fire has always been such a powerful symbol.
It represents destruction —
but also transformation.
A forest may burn, yet eventually tiny green shoots push through the blackened earth.
A candle burns away, but while it does, it gives light.
And sometimes we humans have our own kind of fire.
The fire that keeps us fighting when life becomes difficult.
The fire that makes us speak when silence would be easier.
The fire of creativity, love, determination and hope.
I wish our planet could have a little less of the destructive kind of fire.
But the other kind?
The little flame inside us that whispers,
Keep going.
May that one never go out.
With love, coffee, poetry, and stardust,
— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫
My new song “Silenced-but-not-broken ” is out on all streaming platforms.
https://ditto.fm/silenced-but-not-broken
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