Burn

…in response to the 13th prompt of 2010 on Writer’s Island, I offer a piece I wrote inspired by Joni Michell’s album entitled “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter”. Embedded in this work is the title of every track that appears on that album / also for prompt #126 ‘Angel’ at One Single Impression…



Burn

•

come to me
talk to me otis
and
marlena
reveal your mystery

I am your brood
sired by your seed
bloodied
from your womb

whisper
in a scorching breath
tell me about
the tenth world

taunt me
in scalded apparition

tell me how
to get to dreamland
to cotton avenue
on a hot off night
back street in jericho

tell me of the fires
on paprika plains
that consumed your souls
in flames of hunger
to lust
for immortality

made you dance
at midnight
wrapped in
the silky veils of ardor
on prurient
smoldered embers

I want to go
I am ready

an inferno burns
inside me
desire rages strong
to ride the bliss of sin

son of concupiscence
I am
your son

your lifeblood
courses through me
hammers in my temples
sets my heart ablaze

impassioned
I wil prowl
the shadow’d haunts
of jericho

the dark places
of the tenth world
following your ghosts

seeking
don jaun’s reckless daughter
my scarlet jezebel
my nocturne angel
to take me
in a fever

to whirl me ‘round
to burn me down
to ash

to scatter me
by moonlight

forever
in the winds
of memory
on those plains
of ardor

• • •

rob kistner © 2010

• photorendered collage entitled “Dance of Ardor” by: rob kistner © 2010

44 thoughts on “Burn”

  1. Rob, This is gorgeous. My favorite stanza is from “seeking – fever.” For me the piece evokes sadness and passion, and the two twining round.
    Well done. Joni should give it her haunting touch in song!

    Reply

    1. Thank you Brenda, and oh my gawd — it would be euphoria for me if Joni even looked at this poem. She is, in my humble opinion, one of my generations greatest contemporary poets…

      …rob

      Reply

    1. Joseph, you are most gracious — thank you. A listen to Joni Mitchell’s album, “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter” would shed a bit more light on my poem. Also key is to know I have fantasized about Joni since 1968… 😉

      But even without that stuff, the essence of this piece is a fire dance of words, a burning celebration of language and sound… to be read aloud and felt on the tongue and in the mouth…

      …rob

      Reply

  4. nicely done Rob….a fine tribute to a fine lady…met her in Calgary at Alberta College of Art early sixties…..before heading to Toronto..then NY. Im sure there will be a title from one of her albums in your great prompt from the Island.

    Reply

  8. ummmmmmmmmm or the smoke from Mr Chong’s bong maybe Stan……I have a poem back somewhere in my mind that has the great Tommy playing in a Vancouver band in the sixties…He actually played in a band in Vancouver called Little Daddy and The Bachelors..that became Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers……for anyone interested or can remember

    Reply

  17. Thank you Mary!

    What I do is read the titles, find a few that might be a rough skeleton for an outline of a poem, then write those out one to a line, with several open line spaces between each. I then start filling in the spaces to make sense, including any remaining titles.

    This is the same way I approach a Wordle prompt…

    …rob

    Reply

  20. Wonderful and a soothing flow in your poem, filled with deep emotions 😀 I love it, thank for sharing such a wonderful work, so many remix is going on in my mind right now XD

    Reply

  24. A very nice take on the prompt Rob…

    that angel to tempt one, to burn one and reduce one to ashes…

    simply exuberant as well as intriguing…loved it!

    Reply

  25. Well my first isit to this angelic page..

    Couldn’t relate much but then

    Loved it.. Angel are same everywhere..communicate with each other with vibrations of the same positive language..we hear through our hearts..

    Reply

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