Heart On A Wheel

This poem was inspired by the photo below.
Also by a passage from a multi-media poem I wrote in 2007.
That 2007 poem and video can be found here below “Heart On A Wheel”.

 

 

C racked and seasoned hands
reach with suffered care
to wrap the earthen clay
in love

callused digits
yellowed by habit
shape and mold

caressing purposefully
yet tenderly
the moist pliable vision
spinning golden
atop the wheel

unfolding carefully

evolving

responding
to the maker’s
knowing touch

the envisioned creation
slowly reveals itself
to the creator

ever eager
to bring forth
the concealed secret

blood and bone
in flesh’n grip
connect

seduce

sculpting emotions
into beauty

*
rob kistner © 2021

Poetry at: The Sunday Muse

 


 

Swept Away

Poem written and read by Rob Kistner.
Multi-media video created and produced by Rob Kistner.

~

memphis red
no longer is

gray now shines
from a balding head
filled with scarlet embers

memories still burn
a fired spirit

too deep for coddled mortals
to fully fathom

red is real
red is legend

his tales of pain
of injustice
the lore of the big muddy

his eyes
earthy brown
turbulent as that river

his stare
a deep current
impossible to escape
you’re swept away

his voice
a tempered edge
honed by blues

broadleaf husky
thick as sorghum
smooth as beale street bourbon

the cf martin
swings from a leathered neck
on a tattered strap
stretched and shaped
by the heft of sorrow
poured into the soundhole

marked and scarred
by years of burden
of witness

its character and patina
bear testament
to a genuine soul

cracked and seasoned hands
reach with suffered care
to wrap the fingerboard
in love

callused digits
yellowed by habit
depress taut strands
no longer catgut

blood and bone
grip
connect
sculpting emotions

true life
ensnared in sitka spruce
and spiraled steel

knowing strains rise
chords of loss

rhythmic stomp
stinging verse
of broken promise
failed love

of dirt field
cruel street
back alley
of harsh wisdom

resonate to fill this space
to break my heart
to steal my soul

swept away

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2007

44 thoughts on “Heart On A Wheel”

  1. 2 for the price of 1! What a treat Rob! You had me at Heart on a Wheel, but also this second one, Swept Away with the spoken video is absolutely stunning and perfect for the prompt!

    1. Thank you so much Carrie! Looking at the amazingly powerful and beautiful hands in the photo prompt today, caused me to instantly flash back on that passage I wrote 14 years ago, in “Swept Away” — and which I eventually produced as a spoken word video. So I paraphrased and expanded upon that original passage, reshaping it into “Heart On A Wheel”. I now have two poems, both of deep meaning to me.

  2. Indeed I was swept away. Your description of the “callused digits, yellowed by habit” and the Martin “on the leathered neck and tattered strap” brought Willie Nelson to my mind, his battered Martin and arthritic fingers that still manage to make magic. Yes, I was swept away.

    1. Willie is a wonder! Glad you liked this Bev! It was fun writing, reading, and producing the video. I used to create a number of spoken word videos around my poems back in that time. Unfortunately all but two, maybe three I’ve lost, the result of a screw up I created with a YouTube site I had back then… 🙁 …oh well, live and learn.

  3. Heart on a Wheel …. One of the most beautiful ‘love’ poems I have read ….. sighs for days. Swept Away … did just that ~ cheers.

    1. The clay stirs the vision, the vision informs the fingers, the hands orchestrate the fingers, this all works in harmony to coax and seduce the spinning clay to reveal the maker’s vision and brings the secret of the vision, concealed in the clay, to life.

    1. Thank you Ken. I think in this case it’s because I have a special fascination for aged hands. I believe the say so much about the human spirit, the things I admire — the fight and will to survive, and to take hold of all that is required to finally have aged hands. Deep respect I hold for such… snd I seem to remember the times I have included them in my work.

  4. Great, Rob. I’ll take the first one, my lines are the last, “sculpting emotions into beauty” as that is what they do.
    ..

  5. In the first, I love particularly:

    the envisioned creation
    slowly reveals itself
    to the creator

    ever eager
    to bring forth
    the concealed secret

    The second is quite the tour de force, that in itself being a tribute to the subject. I like the way you’ve matched certain lines to the first poem, binding them into a (progressive) whole.

    1. Thank you Rosemary. Written 14 years apart, I am personally pleased how they complement each other as a tribute to the experienced hands of an artist.

  6. 2 winning poems, Rob. Favorite line of the first one:
    “sculpting emotions
    into beauty”
    Great definition of art!

    Wonderful character study of a blues musician on the 2nd. Favorite lines:
    “stretched and shaped
    by the heft of sorrow
    poured into the soundhole”

  7. Love the way these poems connect; the first one gave me an impression of the material working with the one forming it and the second of the time that it takes to become so close to your material that you can see what it wants to be.

  8. What a great gift in your two poems. Many years ago I tried pottery but couldn’t get on with it however my younger daughter took it up and is quite proficient with her own wheel at home.

  9. sculpting emotions
    into beauty

    Great close, Rob! Pottery requires lots of patience unlike others. as it must be completed there and then before it hardens! Yes, lots of emotions are provoked to get to the beauty at the end!

    Hank

  10. From the bottom of my heart ~~ I will miss you (at the Muse) for much of your best work has been here. These two poems are proof positive.

    1. Thank you for your kind words. I will miss The Sunday Muse too Helen, very much. I so appreciate Carrie’s wonderful commitment and diligence in publish this wonderful site. For me, using an intriguing visual prompt lets me open my imagination to wonder and create much more thsn bring directed by someone else’s words, though I appreciate dVerse and the wonderful folks who keep it going, and all the poets that contribute every week.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *