August
Posted by Rob Kistner | Filed under Poetry
Reflections on a midday in the peak of sizzling summer.
August
•
I inhale
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
salted droplets
trace my spine
baste my neck
to irritate
to saturate
to gather in the hollow
of my labored chest
hesitant in its struggle
bitter beads
bloom and seep
from beneath the smother
of matted soak
to ooze their way
down fevered slope
into my eyes
and sting
glaring sphere
in steaming sky
bears down
imposes
skin weeps
emblazed
tasks at hand
plans to make
will wait
energy expired
thoughts sticky
synapses coated
in humid midday
desire evaporates
even dreams are scorched
life roils slowly
simmering in august
…
rob kistner © 2007
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:33 am
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!
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:42 am
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…
August 2nd, 2007 at 4:37 am
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!
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:21 am
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
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:28 am
Very nice, reminicent of the weather we’ve been having here lately. You’ve captured the feel of a relentless day.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:02 am
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”.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:59 am
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.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:01 am
Rose -
I’m pleased you could relate… but my sympathy as well to you!
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:02 am
Constance -
You are kind! Thank you…
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:03 am
Clare -
Sorry you had difficulty…
But glad you got through, and enjoyed what you found! Thank you…
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:53 am
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!
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:58 am
Very hot!
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am
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.
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 am
Ka -
…
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:39 pm
Heaviness, heat and dampness, struggling to function - I’m exhausted! Loved this.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Patti -
Glad you enjoyed this…
Thank you for the kind words!
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:40 pm
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….
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
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!
August 3rd, 2007 at 2:31 am
I’ll try again - I was very struck by the heat in this poem.
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:51 am
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
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:14 pm
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!
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:15 pm
Gilson -
Thank you for visiting Image & Verse…
and… thank you for your wonderful compliment, it is most appreciated!
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:19 pm
Juliet -
Thank you!
It found its life in my memories of my birthplace — and the 100 degree days with 98% humidity! Yikes… never again!
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:22 pm
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!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:10 am
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!
August 6th, 2007 at 8:19 am
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.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
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.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:47 pm
sister AE -
Thank you!
I will stop by to read what you have writ…