With sufficient time and heat
A flame can soften steel enough
To flow in rivers red as blood.
And adding just a touch of earth and sea,
Can make it stronger than a lover's
Sweet caress perceived in memory.
But if the heat is spent too fast,
The cold clear air will quench
The surface of the alloyed ore
And make it brittle to the touch
Until the tiny flaws, first formed
By furnace and by flame,
Break and shatter through the core,
Until that which made the steel as strong,
As love, is lost. Forever gone!
- Finding the Light of G‑d, page 111