This Four Letter Riddle

[The Rider]

You said:
What does not kill me
Makes me stronger.

But what of Cupid's gouging arrows,
And Venus' raking claws?
Those wounds, it seems, serve only
To hinder, not to help.

Am I mistaken?
Does that masochistic love
Serve some more fantastic purpose?

I have learnt,
The heat of a thousand suns
Leaves only a charred soul
In its wake.

And if my ashes
Flutter in a wind of spiked tongues,
Who's to stop me

From drifting on the airy current
Once again into sapphire sky?

[firefangled]

You said:
What does not kill me
Makes me stronger.

But what of Cupid's gouging arrows,
And Venus' raking claws?
Those wounds, it seems, serve only
To hinder, not to help.

Am I mistaken?
Does that masochistic love
Serve some more fantastic purpose?

I have learnt,
The heat of a thousand suns
Leaves only a charred soul
In its wake.

And if my ashes
Flutter in a wind of spiked tongues,
Who's to stop me

From drifting on the airy current
Once again into sapphire sky?

This is so gorgeously defiant!

Although there are other archaic words and phrasings, learnt for me goes to far. I think you can effectively use learned.

[PrinceMyshkin]

You said:
What does not kill me
Makes me stronger.

But what of Cupid's gouging arrows,
And Venus' raking claws?
Those wounds, it seems, serve only
To hinder, not to help.

Am I mistaken?
Does that masochistic love
Serve some more fantastic purpose?

I have learnt,
The heat of a thousand suns
Leaves only a charred soul
In its wake.

And if my ashes
Flutter in a wind of spiked tongues,
Who's to stop me

From drifting on the airy current
Once again into sapphire sky?

It is the succintness of this, the bold, barefaced nature of the statements and the question, that makes this so effective!

[NikolaiI]

Every poem - years old - I come across of yours, Rider, is a thrilling beauty. . so far, that is, I've come across two, but they're setting a pattern. :-) If you ever see this - thanks so much for writing and sharing!

Your line, "the heat of a thousand sun" reminds me of a line I came up with, as a fragment;

"in the light of a thousand suns
I'm asking you, put down your guns."

And you also reminded me of a Blake quote:

"…some say that Happiness is not Good for Mortals & they ought to be answerd that Sorrow is not fit for Immortals & is utterly useless to any one a blight never does good to a tree & if a blight kill not a tree but it still bear fruit let none say that the fruit was in consequence of the blight."
Letter to William Hayley (1803-10-07).

Interestingly, when I searched for "Blake quotes" to get back to the Wiki page - underneath the first two lines (on the Google) was the start of a quote about Blake. . "Only Nietzsche and Blake know a wholly fallen Godhead. . " hehe okay sorry I see coincidences everywhere - anyway, reading this poem with a clear heart it's quite full of beauty. Thanks! :)