Old Red

  • This was written in and about my beloved old red chair.

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    Old Red

    ~

    sun sits low on the horizon
    the coming night soon will stir
    I sit quietly in my old red chair
    with warm memories gathered ’round me

    Old Red has comforted me for years
    longer than many of my friends
    dear loved ones I’ve been well to know
    for those now gone beyond – a tender tear

    my heart is full, my spirit calm, my life is sweet
    I surrender to another year in fate’s embrace
    wrapped in Old Red, I am grateful for my life
    all I’ve been given, so very much for so very long

    grateful for the sun that rose golden to warm this day
    mountains that rise majestic, covered in old growth
    the rivers, the lakes, the clear mountain streams
    the beautiful nature of my Pacific Northwest

    grateful for my wife and caring friends
    for my precious children and grandchild
    the miraculous moments of their birth
    bittersweetness for the son I lost

    would this evening’s reverie never end
    but soon the lingering day will bow its head
    as twilight fades I’ll watch this night descend
    here in Old Red – grateful where my life has led

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2019

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  • This is my actual “Old Red”, circa 1939.
    It is a vintage Donald Deskey art deco design.
    It has provided comfort for four (4) generations.
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    Click here for more poems about familiar things at Toads.

     

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    Hi! I’m Edgrrr, rob’s shih tzu.

  • 26 thoughts on “Old Red”

    1. I can feel your gratitude for the many blessings, and love that you have the comfort of Old Red, who has companioned you through many happy and sad moments, and maybe even helped you write some poems, as it did this one! So sorry you lost a son, Rob. Thank you for writing to the prompt about Old Red. I loved it.

      1. You are welcome Sherry, and thank you for your gracious. Was my father’s chair. He purchased it in 1939. Hundreds and hundreds of poems, over 1,200 actually, have been written in Old Red. As well as over 120 short stories, as well as countless letters, emails, and texts. And I have designed furniture in it, and b gan the initial concepts of art pieces in Old Red. I have laughed heartily and shed bitter tears in Old Red. No chair in the eorld is as comfortable for me.

    2. You have written poetry and shed bitter tears. My heart skips a beat when I think of losing a child… I’m so sorry. I like your chair better than the first one – your’s looks very comfortable, like an old friend. 🙂

      1. It has been enough time that memories of my Aaron are mostly tender and sweet. He was my second born, and my oldest son. Lost him the dummer before his freshman year in college. I will always miss him so. Yes, the real Old Red fits me like a pair of comfortable shoes Margaret, perfectly broken in, with just the right support!

    3. Thanks for sharing the photo of ‘Old Red’, Rob, which puts a face to the name, so to speak! It really is an old chair and it’s astounding that so much has been created in it. It certainly is a comfort to you, too. I’m sad to read about the son you lost but gladdened that you have other children and grandchildren to fill your world with love.

      1. You’re welcome Kim. It’s circa 1939. My dad kept it in great shape. It was reupholstered in 1969 when he gave it to me, so that leather has had only 50 years of loving use. Lost him July 3rd, 1985, at 19 years of age, My memories of my Aaron are mostly sweet memories now. Love my Old Red!

    4. Hi – Rob, “Old Red” has earned her/his friendship with you. It made for enjoyable reading, thank you. I’m wondering if it was always named and if your endearingly endowed this one later on? Neither of has ever named any of our furniture or cars. We do have a couple of matching Lazy Boy recliners which we purchased after our house was flooded in 1969. We’ve moved them to a game room, our son wants at least one when we discard them. TV’s father of Fraiser had his old chair favorite which came to mind while I was reading here. His did not have a name as I can remember.
      ..

      1. It was my father’s chair Jim, which he purchased I am 90% sure in 1939. It is a big chair, and I loved sitting with him in it. He christened it Old Red, and that is how I was introduced to it. He knew I loved the Art Deco style, so he reupholstered it in 1969 and gave it too me when I got out of college that year. The arm rails are chrome nickle steel, very rare. It is a vintage Donald Deskey chair. The seat cushion reupholstering diminished its collectible value a bit, but it needed it, the result of a cut. It is beautifully broken in. I love it, and I have held all three of my children on my lap, and my grandson, reading to them. Its held four (4) generations of Kistner’s, and plans are that Old Red will remain in the Kistner family forever.

    5. I like your reverie “wrapped in old red” – you evoke how a piece of furniture, which we can own for a long time, can be a touchstone for us of memories, sweet and bittersweet.

      1. Thank you Richard. As you can read in my comments to Jim here, it is a Donald Deskey chair that has been in our family four generations now. It holds Kistner family memories as far back as the 1930’s. It will hold many more into the future.

    6. Dear Rob, you are right, the old red chair, the comfortable chair, the old friend…so important in life. And you know it and said it well!! I don’t really have that chair…I wish I did…

      1. Inherited it from my father. Four generations have enjoyed Old Red. Been read to, held, comforted, laughed, cried in Old Red. I love it Annell…

    7. What an amazing thing to have… not just a wonderful chair, but cushioned with all those memories it becomes a treasure.

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