Month: October 2023

To Dream To Fish


Original DDE™ surreal art: “To Dream To Fish” by: rob kistner © 10/10/23

 
T he fat-bellied black iron stove delivered its amazing breakfast. Shivering a smile, midst the damp Ontario predawn, I’m led by the hissing Coleman’s light, down to dad’s docked fishing boat. You cannot pluck moonlight to bring in your pocket Bobby, he’d say, so it’ll be lantern magic. Gripping cold aluminum hull, I climb aboard, bundled as a bear, including life jacket. That moonlit water’s freezing.

My heart soars as I hear my dad tug on the starter rope, bringing the Evinrude to spark, then roar, readying it to propel us into the dawn that would soon slowly roll over the chop-water. I lovingly grip the cork handle of my favorite pole, as I feel the mist of hull-spray light on my cheeks. Another slight shiver brings me full awake, but not from the chill. This one is pure excitement… today I fish with Dad!

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rob kistner © 10/10/2020
Poems at: dVerse

 



Time Of Endings


Original DDE™ art: “The Old Mill” by: rob kistner © 10/7/23

In this moment, cloaked in early evening of waning October, as autumn tumbles towards winter, one knows the melancholy of the losing of the light. One feels the press of ever growing darkness, the solemnity of the advancing cold.

This is the time of endings, when the land falls dormant. This is the emptiness of harvest completed. This is death’s due vigil, when the realm is a’dance with specters, aglow with jack-o-lanterns. A reflective time when hearts hold fast to the sustaining hope of rebirth.

There settles an all-embracing quiet. From this deep silence rises an almost imperceptible murmur, like a breathless whisper. A hushed prayer of gratitude, in thanks for the harvest’s bounty, a prayer to humbly petition, with the eventual return of the light, the blessing of fruitful new life upon the now fallow land. We pray for the rebirth.

autumn settles hushed
nature slumbers patiently
listening for spring
listening for the heartbeat
of new life resurrected


Original DDE™ surreal art: “The Time of Endings”
by: rob kistner © 10/7/23

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La Tieke © 10/26/2020
La Tieke © 10/7/2023
October Poems at: Poets & Storytellers

 



Greyest Grief

 


Original DDE™ surreal art: “October Moon” by: rob kistner © 10/7/23
 

In a shroud of darkness october wanes
sorrow celebrates the vanishing light
winter smothers autumn’s last refrains
once brightest day now bleakest night

greyest grief stirs in the advancing cold
ghostly mists steal color from our sight
on such a night lost souls are sold
frozen hearts barren as the blight

while slowly rolling in a chromium fog
hawk moon hangs heavy in this black sky
this place forbidding as a sucking bog
this is the hour for dreams to die


Original DDE™ surreal art: “Cave of Lost Souls”
by: rob kistner © 10/7/23

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rob kistner © 10/6/2020
October Poems at: Poets & Storytellers

 

Beautiful Assassin

This response is to “Caged Bird”, by Maya Angelou.


Original DDE™ surreal art: “Hunting On The Wing” by: rob kistner © 10/4/23

 
Osprey calling above the forest nearby
eyes focused sharp on the stream below
should he spy trout — he’ll tuck and dive
smooth cunning predator — he fishes solo
takes his victim quick — rocketing in low

talons like knives — he’s a lethal machine
wounds deep and deadly — delivers clean
with stunning precision, power, and pace
his attack instincts are impeccably keen
proud noble bird — pure speed and grace

his call is defiant — listen, you can hear it
that piercing scream — his unique battle cry
independent — you’ll not restrain his spirit
he is swift and agile gliding across the sky
beautiful assassin — stalking from on high

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rob kistner © 10/3/23
Poetry at: dVerse

 

As It Is

My response to Dylan Thomas’s “Once It Was The Colour Of Saying”.
This is about the failure of education, the loss of compassion, and the death of integrity.


Original digital surreal art: “Futility Of Caring” by: rob kistner © 10/3/23

 
Our hunger for green knowledge
starved bone brittle by hollow echoes
slap sided on dead end chalk boards
askew in silent black-roofed facades
screams into a cold shadowed void
as once it was the colour of saying

now the great roaring unclean
surge and swindle

dumbly blank

whispering in tangled tongues
of forfeit’s hard foolishness

as the liars rise up to backslide
over taunted poison waterfalls
on revved up motors of ridicule
burning the fuel of unrefined truth

now the gentle seaslides of saying
I must undo
with fist and swift

seeing one-eyed blind
through the exasperation
of sullen box-bound broke light
to the heart meat of slain freedom

families bury safety and sanity
in fields of concrete and clay

as dangerous lovers
in the dirt of their leafy beds
hide and huddle

concealing the sly reasons
for held secrets
and unsung songs

spinning wild fiction
in whirlpools of deafening chaos
and dead flowers

now my saying shall be my undoing
knowing the bloodied futility
of the toxic dull-ached search

because veracity is soul-orphaned
pronounced grey-bluingly dead…
…no longer green


Original digital surreal art: “Death of Truth”
by: rob kistner © 10/3/23

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rob kistner © 10/3/23
Poetry at: dVerse

 

Femme Magique



Original digital surreal triptych: “Temptresses” by: rob kistner © 10/2/23

 
M ysterious lady in blackened silk
dark beauty as to mesmerize
a vision painted by a wizard’s brush
seductively she’ll hypnotize
wilding stare of icy blue
floats above a blood-red pout
spellbound by her magic eyes
once she grips your soul
there’s no way out


Original digital surreal art: “Hypnotique”
by: rob kistner © 10/2/23

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rob kistner © 10/2/23
Poetry at: dVerse