Home Heart

~ Home is where the heart takes deepest root ~


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Through Time’s Window” by: rob kistner © 11/3/23

 

My wife and I
have a wonderful
new Seattle home
shared lovingly with family
ruled by my precious
my 10-year-old grandson

but there are moments
I gaze back 8 years
down the halls of time

I see my beloved Oregon home
of 25 amazing years

this morning
I’m lost in this daydream…

…looking through time ‘s window
I see a warm Oregon summer

I hear nature

the chuff
of a tree’d red squirrel

the song
of birds
that flit and fly

chickadee
goldfinch
western bluebird
and others

in a flash of orange
a striking northern flicker
momentarily eschewing insects
is peck peck pecking
cracking black-oil sunflower seeds
that spill from our feeder

a red-tailed hawk calls
from atop a Sitka spruce
swaying
in the crisp blue sky

the muffled belling of a deer
wandering the safety of old-growth
whispers
through the foothills


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Old Growth Sanctuary”
by: rob kistner © 11/3/23

the rustle of leaves
stirred by the breeze
wafting through the valley

smartly punctuated
by the staccato
of conifer cones
that fall
from time to time
wrested free by chickaree
and chipmunk
chattering high in Douglas fir
busy with their forage

wap — wap — wap
they bounce off our roof
striking the ground

closely followed
by the scamper
of their liberators
crunching their way
to the heart-meat of the cone
the delicacy
that elicits this furious industry

drifting in the window
intoxicating fragrances

cedar
pine
fir

lily
rose
lilac

grasses
loam
and more

a rich
earthy bouquet


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “PacNW Bouquet”
by: rob kistner © 11/3/23

it carries me further
deeper into my memories
to the mountains
and forests
and the amazing waterfalls
that first imprinted Oregon
indelibly in my heart

caught in my reverie
I breathe in
deeply
to suddenly remember…

…I’m not in my Oregon home
I am in my new Seattle home

it’s filled to overflowing
with family
without whom I’b be lost

and love

for a moment
I do not open my eyes
I linger a bit longer
in my beautiful daydream
of my Oregon

my heart will forever be there
but I’ll never go back to stay
not until my ashes are spread
high in the Cascade Mountains
on Mt. Hood
across breathtaking Lost Lake

but here
now
on this day
filled with memories
and joy
a solitary tear
falls


Original DDE™ surrealistic art: “Mt. Hood Majesty”
by: rob kistner © 11/3/23

*
rob kistner © 2023

[367 words]

Poetry at: WGO

Poetry at: Poets & Storytellers

 

22 thoughts on “Home Heart”

  1. Intensely and lovingly beautiful! What a reverie! Love the love of family, too, and the tear. Thank you for giving me a piece of Oregon.

  2. Normally I don’t comment on lengthy poems but this is really really beautiful and heartfelt. I even read it twice. ..So pleased you are in a happy loving place at the moment with wonderful memories of your magical mountain home. All the best Rob !

  3. A beautiful tribute to Oregon What else can you wish for in the land than mountains, forests and waterfalls. I love the cute chipmunks and squirrels as well. We don’t have them here but in Holland where I lived we had squirrels.

  4. I know that feeling well, Rob, as I spent 17 years in Port Alberni, longing for my ocean home. Oregon is so beautiful. However the Pacific NorthWest is all pretty special, and I am so glad you are surrounded by family. That’s what matters most.

  5. Oh Rob ~~~ and here I sit in the Oregon you describe so eloquently, beautifully, perfectly. Three deer chomping on the apples in our front yard, the last three on the tree this morning.

    1. Yesterday, my wife helps me realize that living here for me is probably a blessing in disguise. I’m four hours away from that pristine wilderness that I used to love, and if I still lived there, I want to be in the middle of it. However, my health does not permit that anymore so the fact that it’s out of easy reasonable reach, makes that longing just as sweet, but not as tormenting. The wilderness wandering for me is over, but the dream lives on forever, as do the rich vivid memories — and I’m so blessed for it. Now I’m blessed for the love of that I am surrounded with, and the pure joy of my grandson, which I did not have when I lived down in Oregon. So it had all worked out wonderfully. I am a lucky lucky man.

    1. You are blessed Rommy. At 76, I had the perfect place in which to untether my soul for 25 years. It was delicious. For the last 8 years since, I have had the love of son, daughter-in-law, and grandson in which to swaddle — for which I feel gratitude beyond my ability to effectively express. So I have a run of 33 years of joy and good fortune — even with my health challenges.

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