SunsetGunn

NOTE — I borrowed lines and inspiration from my 2011 poem: Skye Fyre
 

IMG_8599

 
The SunsetGunn is loaded, the controls, in GunnMaster’s grip
calmly concentrating, he scans the horizon with careful eyes
the golden sun having made his journey, is weary from the trip
quicksilver moon will very soon, traverse the starry skies

Gaia rolls on gently, hushed in quiet space
GunnMaster has her skyline, locked squarely in his sight
Gaia pulls a veil of stars, slowly across her face
GunnMaster has a task, he needs complete before its night

he’s to set the sky ablaze, before he falls to sleep
a fiery coral-orange, twilight-blue, and crimson-red
in patterns broad and bold, in colors rich and deep
he carefully aims the SunsetGunn, and blasts it overhead

in a brilliant, blinding flash, he sets the dimming skies a’fire
in vivid hues, and lavish shades — the dusky sky ignites and burns
GunnMaster has succeeded, so for this night, he can retire
the SunriseGunn already loaded, in early morning, he returns

IMG_8599

*
rob kistner © 2023

Poetry at: dVerse

 



A few more from Animal Logic — GOOD SHIT!



When The Trees Die

 

T he landscape
losing its gild
mottles
in gunmetal grays
long gone greens
bare blacked sterling

nothing for the eye to swoon
nor in which
the soul to find solace

the poet’s words of warning
had fallen for years
on deaf ears
now nothing
to inspire grand verse

just barren rolling regret
stripped of lush mystery
color drained
jagged n’poisonous

fractured storm clouds
laced with the toxins
of human excess
and lethal impatience
churn ominously
in huddling menace

brightened breezes
that in the once-time
sizzled in the aspens
rolled the conifers
in velvet undulation
rattled the oaken forests

build and bulge
buffeted into angry fronts
seethingly murderous
faced with nothing
to stem the rage
nor to buffer
or discourage
the thrashing fury

howl and growl
into brittling winds
strafing gales
razing tempests

hollowed trunks
like spindled husks
ripped mercilessly from the earth

this world
that’s tumbling towards nothingness
is parched dust-blown emptiness
achingly void

my heart
shudders for the deep chill
of shadow
mourning eden’s devastation

scorching sun
pierces the dirt-broiling stir
that bites and stings
stumbling along dry cracked terrain

blurring watery eyes
chafing coarsen’d skin
that scalds and blisters

would that it rain
drown the lands
that I might
turn my face to the sky
flood my wooden mouth
charred by hunger
with drenching waters
of suspended thirst

to douse the cruel fire
of my spirit
that longs for
the whisper of winds
in canopies high above
now long forgotten

longs for the plush
of a high-mountain meadow
now scattered in tumbling debris
crying in cruel winds

never
never will it happen

ignorant words
which should never have been spoken
our covenant with nature
was badly broken

much too late
we realized the arrogance
of belief
that lacked intention
of assumption
that lacked conviction

as through tears
we watched our trees
slowly die

*
rob kistner © 2022

Poetry at: earthweal

 



Bridge of Truth

The music is a key element of my expression here…

FE6468E4-DB21-4AC2-AE47-A151350888DD

 

P ossessed of all it is I am
I sigh a sigh of longing
I feel empty sad and very old
I seek to fill my barren soul

~across the bridge of truth~

I seek not a kingly right
nor scepter gold to rule a realm
worldly wealth I do not need
love’s enlightenment I seek

 

IMG_8645

 
*
rob kistner © 2021

Poetry at: dVerse

 





~ A live bonus from Pauly! ~

Seductive Fantasy


…a stream of consciousness trip…

 

Soaring psychedelic
colors pierce my eyes
to bleed into my mind
pulsing into shapes
and melting forms
dancingly irregular
a brilliant cacophony
of fully beautiful discord
that flows in time displacement
blared breathing blending abstract

wow dude!
~~ drifting drifting ~~

so wondrous and magical
as to create a dreamspace
where reality steps away
to a seductive fantasy
that roils and broils
a seething serenade
of sounds and vision
a sanctified vibration

simply too gone!
immaculate!

joyful noise’d orblets
flaring and flashing
in hues and shades
in timbre’d cadences
they spark stiletto sharp
stabbing staccato’d stealthy
and again colors pierce my eyes
lovely rumblings fill full my ears
shifting spinning and floating
to journey a’new through
my beautiful bountiful
and utterly blown
mind garden

}|=|{

psssst! hey! you!
am I conscious man —
— or halluuucinating truuuth?

rob kistner © 2021

Day 1 poetry at: NaPoWriMo 2021


Lunar Spring

Vote = Voice — Speak Up! 2CC45105-E580-4197-9120-35D724A74CF8

 

2EA83AFD-EDDB-490B-845D-5D75BDBC7093

 

Lunar Spring

~

Mad March finds me on the moon. I’ve brought me some flutter-bees, in hopes my humor may actually survive. Winter rains held on long this year on earth, but skies are clear up here — though cold as hell. This weightlessness improves my attitude, lifting my mood. Makes me feel like a feather. My prodigal smile breaks through a bit, watching the damned butterflies escape and flit.

We brought some paneled sun and bottled rain, gonna try to ignite these seeds here in my spacesuit pocket. Maybe we can get’em pushing their sprouts through this boxed fertile earth soil. Brought it all the way from Oregon’s Willamette River Basin. Oh look, the butterflies are cavorting among the moon rocks. Gotta get a picture of that, though they really don’t look very well!

We brought some recordings of chirping birds, and sealed fragrances of new blooms. We are working our butts off, and this lame luna wind ain’t gonna waft the fragrances. Well, we got the synthesized smells, hues, and sounds of Spring, but it ain’t makin’ my heart sing, or my spirit dance! Spring on the moon’s no romance, it sucks! Oh look, the fucking butterflies are at it again.

moon wind’s blowin’ badly
butterflies behavin’ madly
gravity’s flyin’em upside down
zero oxygen’s droppin’em to the ground
won’t be long before they’re expired
and me and the crew are totaly tired
spring on the moon sucks!

~ ~ ~

rob kistner © 2020

Image: Eddie Schrieffer

 

  • To read more poems at Sunday Muse: CLICK HERE
  • Lauria at the Speed of Light

  • remembering a great performer, good friend, former bandmate, lost to Covid-19
     

    52FD50A2-AC51-44DB-9D5D-71CDBD05DC15

     
    Lauria at the Speed of Light

    ~

  • did I ever tell you about Lauria
    living at the speed of light
    blazing through the midday sky
    rocketing through the night

    she was a natural wonder
    a miracle to behold
    soared through time like a lightning flash
    unwilling to ever grow old

    streaking through the universe
    a meteor of flesh and bone
    racing high above on wings of dreams
    like a shooting star she shone

    mystery sister of Aoede & Terpsichore
    she’s a goddess of dance and song
    she’d cast her beguiling lyrical spell
    and hold captive her mesmerized throng

    the news came late last weekend
    Lauria was nowhere in sight
    last seen circling a midnight star
    moving at the speed of light

    people who knew Lauria well
    were sure it was what they’d feared
    she had finally outdistanced time
    and mystically disappeared

    never ever to be seen again
    no way — no how — nowhere
    she’d lived life at such velocity
    she blazed out like a beautiful flare

    43929893-3F16-4315-9BDE-E5BCCCC9EC3D

    oh, would her end have been such magic
    whirled away in an enchanted gust
    sadly she was felled by a virulent evil
    smaller than a speck of stardust

    R.I.P.

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2020

     

    NOTE to “Blogger” site owners: I enjoy reading your work, but frustratingly, many “Blogger” sites DO NOT let me post comments? 🙂 So sorry if you don’t see personal comments from me on your “Blogger” site. But I will keep reading your work — and welcoming and responding to your comments here on Image & Verse.

  • Click to read more dVerse poems:
    OpenLinkNight #273

  • Arc of the Ages

    38C3BF1C-DCF2-4E13-B33B-9A6AEB7D545A

     
    Arc of the Ages

    ~

    do not hide
    from the great orb
    of unquestioning fate
    that spins in the spaces
    of destiny’s light and dark
    days of falter and fear
    approaching
    moving
    unsteady on legs
    of unquenchable doubt
    what your mind must
    conceal from the assassin
    of joy and forgiveness
    held pure
    tested
    by time and the hands of
    the waiting who cower
    yet smile
    singing truth through
    the hail and barrage
    ‘cross the bow mast of glory
    seeking broad measure and berth
    as all that you seem to
    desire slips slowly like
    rain down a vent pipe
    to plumb deep
    the black dreams
    such is the slag-shattered
    glass of the future
    that moves slow
    through the arc
    of the ages
    who’ve waited and
    watched ‘neath the moon
    of deliberate ancients
    that revolves in the
    void of the others
    that see what we
    knew to be ever
    the voice of the lost
    to the light
    of the dawning that
    heralds the word of
    this time that’s upon
    us and holds us at
    last in the fire
    of visions and
    longing for all that
    we are to be
    here in our heart
    of the moment
    that flees like
    a squandered teardrop
    forever away from
    our failing grasp

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2020

     

  • Click below to check out more streaming at dVerse:
    MTB: Stream of Consciousness Writing

     

  • Crows of Castle Keep

    “Castle Keep is my metaphor for the mind.”

    81CA4836-C9C2-4292-9D2E-4793B02BD668

     
    Crows of Castle Keep

    my contemplation on dementia

    ~

    my memories gather and squabble
    like the crows of castle keep
    they pick the bones
    of my recall

    bones against the cruel clay
    of an arid
    barren mind

    littered with the harsh forgotten
    like the bones of the dinosaur
    I’m becoming

    struggling
    with what letters are made of
    my words crack and crumble

    my thoughts
    parch and wither

    lonely silhouettes
    against an unforgiving skyline

    fading visions of my past
    of my life
    my home
    of yesterday

    harder and harder to remember
    the degrees of separation
    growing ever greater
    smoldering in the fog
    of my reflected past

    splashes of vivid color
    on scraps of paper
    blown in the mounting winds
    of my confusion

    dread rising
    that I will soon not remember
    what it all meant to me
    a stirring fear I will forget
    lost in tormented emptiness
    that all will go black

    this is not just a poem
    it is much more

    this is a light
    searching in blackness
    for familiar things
    for persons beloved
    that I do not recognize

    this is a fractured tome
    a cry of frustration
    a tear of loss
    a whispered prayer

    an epitaph
    to my fading map of then

    of cherished memories
    that now falter
    and dim

    slowly slipping
    unintelligible
    into the cacophony
    of the crows of castle keep


    E8A2F1BD-9ED3-4D31-95BE-D36EA9CEECC3

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2019

     

  • Click below to heck out more poems of blackness on dVerse:
    dVerse Poetics: On Shades of Black

  • Falling To Pieces

    57C44ECB-418A-4FC1-9072-CEC397A993C6
    ”I can’t see the end of me” by: Oladios

     
    Falling To Pieces

    ~

    oh dear
    I fear
    I have lost my heart

    and along with it
    a larger part

    if I do not panic
    but stay calm
    instead
    being careful
    not to lose my head

    if I can
    look to the future
    avoid the dread

    it’s not hard to conceive
    kitty I truly believe

    though parts of me
    have certainly
    lost a bit
    of fleshy tether

    eventually
    with what’s left
    of me
    I can finally

    pull myself together

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2019

     

  • To check out more poems at Sunday Muse: CLICK HERE
  • This Heart

    BFF2A456-1E90-4F3C-B250-DE3E72DD51EE

     

    This Broken heart

    ~
    this heart’s now yours
    this damaged heart
    this brittle fractured aching heart
    broken by you, every part

    I’ve no use for this ruined heart
    plucked here from my chest
    I seek a new and vital heart
    one that’s far less stressed

    a fresh heart that’s unbreakable
    a heart able to forgive
    unmarred unscarred yet tender
    beating with the joy to live

    143ADF16-F73E-4E1B-9C6B-DB3DB925C984

    ~ ~ ~

    rob kistner © 2012