For No One
Posted by Rob Kistner | Filed under Free Verse, Image, Poetry, art, courage, joy, minimalist, nature, philosophy, wisdom, wonder
and prompt #69 at Carry On Tuesday,
also the September 1st prompt at Three Word Wednesday…
•
to which I tight step
pulses
in my heart
alone
it is my coursing vital
stirs my spirit
steels my resolve
drives me on
into the fray
emboldened
“to thine own self”
resonates
the chambers
of my soul
sweet
as the song
of angels
if one is not
author
of the life
one lives
it is
plagiarized
and its essence
forged
it is my pen
scribes my epitaph
the spark
must be authentic
or the fire
arson
the flame
that burns within
is mine
do not expect
I will ignite
for you
or blaze
to your vision
you are not
my flint
do not attempt
to chart
my course
I search
my own
horizon
do not
contain me
I live
outside
do not
seek me
on the surface
I break deep
below
the negative
do not
summon me
to your queue
yours is not
my grid
or file
you are not
my piper
this
I know
I stand in line
for no one
• • •
rob kistner © 2010
September 1st, 2010 at 10:34 am
I like the sentiments here.
pitching forward
September 1st, 2010 at 10:43 am
Beautiful writing!
September 1st, 2010 at 11:01 am
Good one, Rob. I like especially “I break deep / below/ the negative” and “do not / summon me / to the queue”.
Thank you for the comment you left me earlier.
September 1st, 2010 at 11:02 am
Great stuff, Rob. Simple, but simple and beautiful. What you end up with is just a great read.
September 1st, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Amen, my brother!!!!!
This was my favourite stanza: “if one is not/author/
of the life/one lives/it is/plagiarized/and its essence/forged”
I love this. Simple, beautiful, and to the point. I like what you did with the prompt this week.
-Nicole
September 1st, 2010 at 1:47 pm
A Manifesto of intent. I love the same lines that Nicole already stated, but actually love the piece as a whole and the image you chose to go with it. Individuality is something worth striving for and you seem to march straight at your reader in declaring that here. Great.
Elizabeth
September 1st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Thank you Gautami…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 3:39 pm
You are ever kind Mary…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 3:41 pm
Always appreciate your comments Maureen, and you are welcome…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Thank you Thom, inspiration came strong, I was moved to the point for this piece…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Can I get a hell yes…
…thank you Nicole, I am pleased this touched you…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Appreciate your gracious words, and very glad this worked for you ElizaBeth… I was not moved to pull punches with this one — this is what inspiration dictated…
…rob
September 1st, 2010 at 5:00 pm
I was sure I left a response here earlier. Like this poem a lot and how it marches straight at the reader, demanding its right to an individuality we all should be striving to achieve. Wonderful , but simple images not difficult to interpret, that alone makes it accessable to a wider audience.
Elizabeth
September 2nd, 2010 at 12:34 am
Wonderful poem. Not sure about the layout! I always find it difficult to read this ochre small print on black” and it would have been a lot easier if each staza became one line! I persevere because I love your poetry!
The picture is beautifull, too - the isolated man echoes the feeling your poem generates.
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:37 am
“if one is not author of the life one lives it is plagiarized and its essence forged” - powerful and so absolutely true !
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:26 am
Living life for you must be a great experience..
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:27 am
Love this!!
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:38 am
Yes, you did comment — but you can do so as often as you’d like ElizaBeth…
…rob
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:06 am
Thank you Viv, I am pleased you like my work, and I genuinely appreciate your gracious support… being a designer and artist as well as a writer/poet, the visual form of the work is a considered part of the presentation for me, as is the design and layout of my blog — and the form of my individual poems is also a clue to how my poet’s voice ‘hears’ the piece as a finished composition.
As an artist, I constantly explore other work for inspiration, and as an admirer of some — when I came across this piece from Aynaku I was compelled to include it, because as you astutely observed, it is visually serendipitous with my poem… I introduced the thin square border to depict a person living “outside the box”…
…and Viv, thank you for your continued perseverance…
…rob
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:23 am
…and Dreamer, this personal ‘authorship’ is something so many seem to willingly surrender or abandon in the course of living, falling into the flock as sheep — and I fear, depriving our world of their unique potential… thankfully individuals such as Michelangelo, DaVinci, Einstein, Gandhi, Edison, Martin Luther King, and others of their like sustained as the responsible authors of their own life, making our world a far better place in so doing…
…rob
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:37 am
Ramesh, my life has been filled with wonderful joys and with paralyzing horrors, but it is my life, and an experience I fully embrace — choosing to live it as authentically and individually as I can, in the humble hope I might make some true difference in our amazing, and often confounding world… this poem is my declaration of that intention, and hopefully a catalyst for others to be genuinely and responsibly who they are. As poet e. e. cummings so wisely observed, “it takes courage to grow up and become who you really are”…
…rob
September 2nd, 2010 at 8:38 am
I’m pleased Jeanne, thank you…
…rob
September 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Wow! Just…wow. These are words I needed to see. It couldn’t have been easy to hammer out something this beautiful. I especially love: “the spark must be authentic or the fire arson”
Thank you for sharing this.
September 2nd, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Thank you Nara for your gracious enthusiasm…
…rob
September 5th, 2010 at 1:02 am
A brave response to living Rob.
September 5th, 2010 at 9:27 am
It’s a bold time we live in Irene…
…rob