VELDT FIRE - By Janine Wessels

Written By: Janine Wessels

Category: Free Verse Poetry

Competition: Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026

Janine Wessels presents "VELDT FIRE," a captivating piece of free verse poetry that delves into the unrestrained passion and transformative power of love. As part of the Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026, this work explores the wild, untamed regions of the heart, emphasizing a fierce and feral desire. Wessels invites readers on a journey through the burning intensity of love, likening it to a veldt fire that consumes and transforms everything in its path.

About the Work

"VELDT FIRE" is a vivid exploration of love's ability to consume and transform. Wessels employs powerful imagery and a fervent tone to capture the primal force of a love that is both wild and uncontainable. The poem is set against the backdrop of nature's raw elements, using metaphors of fire and wind to illustrate the overwhelming and unrestrained nature of passion. The reader is invited to experience love as a transformative fire, one that reshapes and remakes from the inside out.

VELDT FIRE

Original Submission by Janine Wessels

VELDT FIRE

To love with wild abandon.

To be loved without restraint.

To explore the inner wilderness—

where want is not whispered,

but howled.

Where you are not careful,

but consumed.

Be the wind that fans the fire,

tearing through the dry grass of your certainty,

until you’re nothing but smoke and open sky.

Set fire to your edges

like lightning does to the veldt.

No mercy.

No map.

Just heat.

From that scorched earth, let something wild rise.

Not tamed. Not tempered.

But fierce,

feral,

flame-born.

To love like dry grass meeting flame.

To be loved like wind-fed fire across open land.

Not in pieces,

but completely—

lit from within by a longing

that scorches,

that pulls toward something unnamed,

until only the truth remains,

charred and breathing.

Let it crack you open—

not gently,

but like thunder breaks sky.

Let it find your marrow.

Let it unravel you.

Ruin you.

Remake you.

Because some fires don’t come to warm.

They come to transform.

And this—

this is no ordinary flame.

This is veldt fire.

It was born beneath your ribs.

It remembers the first breath.

Moves like fury.

Stays like hunger.

Never asks.

Never waits.

Never leaves you the same.

This is not the fire you tame.

And I—

I seek a heart that burns like that.

A heart full of veldt fire.

Not polite.

Not small.

But savage in its heat.

Unapologetic in its desire.

A heart that doesn’t ask to be held—

it consumes.

Devours.

Refuses to apologize for the heat.

I want the blaze.

The ache.

The pull toward something I’ve never touched,

never named—

but have always known in my bones.

I want to love

like dry grass meeting flame.

Sudden.

Total.

Irrevocable.

I want to be loved

like wind-fed fire across open land—

no path,

no pause,

just burn.

Let me feel it.

All of it.

Let me stand in the center of that heat—

no shelter.

No shield.

Bare,

breathless,

unhidden.

Let me burn in that fire—

not in hell—

no—

in something wilder.

In something sacred.

In something that doesn’t end in ruin—

but in resurrection.

Let me burn in heaven.

About the Competition

The Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026, hosted by Hashtag Kalakar, celebrates the richness and diversity of creative expression. Participants from around the world submit their work, showcasing a wide array of literary talents and perspectives. This prestigious event brings together writers and poets, offering a platform to share their unique voices and stories with a global audience.

We extend our deepest gratitude to Janine Wessels for sharing "VELDT FIRE" with us. Her contribution to the Global Poetry and Creative Writing Competition 2026 offers a powerful insight into the transformative nature of love through vivid and evocative imagery. We appreciate her participation and look forward to witnessing the impact of her words on a broader audience.

About Hashtag Kalakar

Hashtag Kalakar is a creative platform dedicated to providing artists, writers, singers and other creative talents with opportunities to showcase their work and reach wider audiences through competitions, features and creative initiatives.