then stop
nostrils singed
by scalded air
too hot and thick
to breathe
a heat to suffocate
haltingly
I fill my lunges
yet again
to bake them
in sustaining breath
this oven to endure
skin weeps
emblazened
salted droplets
baste my neck
trace my spine
to irritate
to saturate
to gather in the hollow
of my labored chest
hesitant in its struggle
brackish beads
bloom and seep
from beneath the smother
of matted soak
atop my head
to ooze their way
down fevered slope
into my eyes
and sting
bittering my lips
glaring sphere
in steaming sky
smirks
crackles
bears down
imposing
tasks at hand
plans to make
all will wait
energy expired
exhaustion’s odor
permeates
thoughts sticky
synapses coated
in humid midday
where are the rains
of quenching april
questions evaporate
desires are vaporized
even dreams are scorched
life roils slowly
simmering in august
rob kistner © 2007
My lungs are burning just from reading your poem! So strange to read in the middle of our winter …
Thanks for all your supportive comments on my blog. I enjoy reading yours as well!
Pip –
Thankfully — this poem is from memories of past, before I lived here in the mild and temperate Pacific Northwest… but my memories still linger vivid of sweltering, oppressive Augusts. Never again.
I appreciate your kind words… 😉
As I approached the end, those short lines with spaces in between really gave me the impression of someone too exhausted from heat for coherent thought. This is not quite the kind of summer I’m looking forward to, as we come out of winter here!
Rob,
You must have been here yesterday with us. A perfectly horrid day that you have captured to the last drop of sweat. 🙂
Rose
xo
Very nice, reminicent of the weather we’ve been having here lately. You’ve captured the feel of a relentless day.
Hi Rob! The submit button hasn’t been working here, so I haven’t been able to leave a comment. I tried last night and little while ago. Hopefully this will work now. Your photograph is glowingly glorious on my computer screen — it’s so beautiful. And I really enjoyed your poem and can totally feel the super hot heat — I especially like the phrases “baste my neck” and “thoughts sticky”. 🙂
Catherine –
I’m pleased you enjoyed the diminished pacing as the poem concluded… 😉 …thank you, you’re most astute!
This is not the summers of the Pacific Northwest, but this is the August peak of my childhood hometown.
Hopefully you will be spared this as your summer arrives.
Rose –
I’m pleased you could relate… but my sympathy as well to you! 😉
Constance –
You are kind! Thank you… 😉
Clare –
Sorry you had difficulty… 🙁
But glad you got through, and enjoyed what you found! Thank you… 😉
hi rob,
whew, your poem is making me sweat as well. i thought about all those images i saw in the news lately, of nature burned/burning in southern italy, greece, and utah and it just makes me so sad. i wanted to send rain your way, thankfully you don’t need it now.
love the picture too!
Very hot!
Odessa –
Glad my piece touched!
Nature is a brutal master at times… but natural disasters are a course of life. Man made disasters… well, that’s another matter. 🙁
Ka –
… 😉
Heaviness, heat and dampness, struggling to function – I’m exhausted! Loved this.
Patti –
Glad you enjoyed this… 😉
Thank you for the kind words!
rob,, i am from south florida currently living in nor cal… and your poem makes me feel like home… and helps me remember why i am here…..
very excellent descriptive language… i am somewhat scared of free verse,, i don’t know if i can “see” well enough,, to take you there….
you my friend definitely can….
I know quite what you mean Rob, I get that kind of sunshine all year long. It’s a truly magnificent poem you have here; I feel its description as I read it!
I’ll try again – I was very struck by the heat in this poem.
Hi Rob
Noticed that my comments haven’t shown up on your site – trying again –
technology is a great thing. Like your Visceral readings.
Sue
Paisley –
Thank you, you are most kind! 😉
Home is where the heart is…
Free Verse is easier for me than poetry which must follow a preconceived form. I lose my sincerity, the depth of my feelings or vision, when I try to force a form… but we are all different — that’s why Baskins Robins makes 31 flavors!
Gilson –
Thank you for visiting Image & Verse… 😉
and… thank you for your wonderful compliment, it is most appreciated!
Juliet –
Thank you! 😉
It found its life in my memories of my birthplace — and the 100 degree days with 98% humidity! Yikes… never again!
Sue –
So very sorry of some of your comments are not getting through… 🙁
My son is still trying to sort out what is causing the intermittent problems. What make it so tough is the transmittance — it’s difficult to diagnose because it is not predictable!
Thank you for your patience and your kind words! 😉
Whoa…I really felt this oven of heat. All your word choices, and the sweat’s dripping flow, flame this up for me. As uncomfortable as this heat is, your poem still suggests those cleansing aspects of it. Like stepping out of a sweatlodge, somehow we’re purified, more ourselves.
Sounds like you’re having a hot summer! 😉
KG –
I’m pleased this piece touched you… 😉
Yes, there can be a cleansing aspect to heat — as you’ve suggested. Personally, I prefer being able to select when I immerse myself in heated purification. I don’t appreciate nature thrusting it upon me.
No, our summer has been wonderful. For the most part, save an occasional day or two, we have beautifully moderate summers here in the Pacific Northwest.
However, my childhood home, in the Ohio River Valley, was 95 degrees / 95% humidity in the summer. It is my memory of these oppressive summers that sparked this poem.
Very nice.
I, too, have been working on a piece about the all-encompassing nature of the summer heat. I’m planning to post it for tomorrow’s Poetry Thursday, so please stop by to compare.
sister AE –
Thank you!
I will stop by to read what you have writ… 😉
I think I have some Imagine Dragons on my workout playlist because this immediately took me to that band.
I love this so much:
“brackish beads
bloom and seep
from beneath the smother
of matted soak”
So flipping awesome.
Thank you Shawna, Iampleased this resonated for you… 🙂
You have captured the August heat. I went hiking on a very hot day and felt that sting in my eyes. sigh…but, it was worth every step in the beauty of nature. A reprieve today as some rain came in to cool things off.
I hope this finds you well, my friend.
I am doing pretty good True. Hope life is treating you well my fridnd… 🙂
thanks for bringing this back up. it’s been rather hot here in NJ, in the ninties for several weeks on end now (quite unusual) Reminds me of an article in National Geographic many years ago. Equatorial africa, before sunrise, getting ready for the day’s expedition, over 90 already, heading for the 120’s. The guides were wearing parkas because they were cold!
I guess in the end temperature and tolerance is all relative, but I’m a 70s no humidity kind of guy, so the Pacific Northwest suits me perfectly. However, even we have been getting occasional 90s in the summer over the past few years Eric. Maybe climate change is real, I’m inclined to think it is at least to some degree.
A sizzling poem Rob. A normal everyday day in Trinidad and Tobago is 32C but your poem day i image to be much hotter.
Much love…
90° is hot to me Gillena, but I’m sure with nice breezes it would be tolerable for me. I’m a cooler weather guy, that’s why the Pacific Northwest suits me perfectly my fridnd, cooler, no humidity. Much love… 🙂
I could feel the humidity and the frustration and the need for respite and rain. So well written.
Thank you my friend. I felt this piece was appropriate given the heat that seems to be in many many places around the globe
I could feel the heat–and that sense of not being able to breathe. I’m glad to see it’s not where you are now. I know there is crazy weather all over. It’s hot and humid here, but I suppose not as bad as further south.
It is OK right now here in the Pacifuc Northwest Merril. However, just a few days ago it was in the 90s here which is unusual, so it put me in mind is how hot it was in the Ohio river valley where I grew up. This was also inspired by Tuesday’s prompt. Given how hot this summer currently is in many many places, I felt I should revisit this piece that I wrote back in 2007.
Hot stuff! I think you just described so well the majority of my summer. No air conditioning system as foundation work was being done, so it was brutally humid until yesterday with a re-install. I especially love these lines….
“questions evaporate
desires are vaporized
even dreams are scorched”
Good gawd, how did you survive Mish! Of course, I did survive through that type of summer year after year when I was growing up, but my younger body could deal with it. Now that’s 75 with congestive heart failure a pacemaker in general bad health, that much sustained he would’ve taken me out. I like my Pacific Northwest where summers usually stay in the upper 70s may be low 80s occasionally. And more importantly a little to no humidity. However in recent years we’ve seen our share of 90s in the summer, but thankfully not too often. Global climate change seems quite real, unfortunately.
Hmm….I did separate your quoted lines…not sure what happened there.
I wouldn’t be too upset Mish, website inconsistencies don’t seem to be a rarity. However sorry about that my friend.
I imagine a turkey being basted in the oven would feel similar if it was alive. It’s been August for about 4 months now here in MI 🙁 Stay cool, my friend.
You got Lisa. That is why I live in the PacNW — lovely summers, cool no humidity… today, August 5th is was 73° humidity was 57, light breeze, made my chimes ring gently on the porch! Wonderful! … 😉
Breathtakingly beautiful 🙂
Thank you Veera… 🙂
Indeed!
You painted August misery quite eloquently.
Thank you Imelda… 🙂