Swept Away

  • A bluesman’s life and soul: “Music gives me goose-bumps, especially when created from the heart, by a genuine human spirit…”
  • swept-away.jpg

     
    Swept Away

    (- REDUX 2019 -)

    ~

    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

    __________________________

    photo rendering above entitled: “Knowing”
    rendered by: rob kistner © 2007

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    96 thoughts on “Swept Away”

    1. Excellent! Very Well Done!

      I am celebrating my first anniversary having moved to the West Coast from Chicago last August 18th. So many things out here I love and cherish dearly but one thing I miss and will not find out here often is the soul of the Blues. I miss stopping at a dive after work and losing own impoverished self in the music of another who lives and works the same. I have had the joy of experiencing that with all my time spent down South in New Orleans as well and cherish those memories just the same.

      Thanks for this beautiful piece!

    2. Tag

      Thank you! You are most kind.

      …and you are welcome… 😉 I enjoyed creating this piece, especially the ‘spoken word’ production.

      My wife and I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for 18 years now, and we absolutely love it!

      However, in the decade of the 80’s, I had a satellite office in Chicago for my media-room/home-theater design company. The office was manned by an associate, but I visited the ‘windy city’ frequently.

      Greg used to take me to a number of marvelous blues joints, with the most soulful ambiance and real character. Those nights (into early mornings) were the greatest!

      There was wonderful jazz in chi-town as well! One jazz place I remember, whose name I can’t recall, was up north of the city just a bit, along the Lake Michigan shore, nestled among apartments. It was at the intersection of oddly divergent streets.

      The club was not big, and sort of pie shaped — with a low ceiling. You entered at the tip of the pie. Very intimate room with really great jazz. Ahh… memories!

    3. You are an authentic talent. Listening to this poem as you read it truly helped me appreciate its authenticity, it’s concreteness, the real feel of the blues.

      I read Swept Away initially and I enjoyed it. But your reading showed me your interpretation and deepened my understanding of your words.

      Loved it!

      Peace,

      L&T

    4. Pingback: Swept Away
    5. It was fun to read the comments and here the background of the piece as well.

      What a lovely baritone voice! It gave a much deeper dimension to the poem. The rave reviews aren’t by mistake!

    6. Granny –

      First, think you for the kind words! Second — how absolutely rockin’ cool that you own two Martins!! 😉

    7. Rob, I just loved that! I read it first, and the description of his voice grabbed me particularly. Then, listening to your reading – you make a composition on another level entirely – the background music/sounds, your own voice! Marvellous!

    8. This poem got a chills rating of ten from me. It kind of shook me up a little bit. I love the Guitar references. Only guitar players would know what a CF Martin is. I love the blues, being from the south, I think you captured the hearbeat of dirty south pain with this. I liked it very much.

    9. Henry –

      glad you liked this man…

      I enjoy the bold honesty of your work…

      I have a 1958 Martin D-28 (Brazilian Rosewood) – pristine

      • thanks for stoppin’ by…

      …rob

      1. Sounds like a cool friend Toni. When I first published “Swept Away” back in 2007 I added a spoken word recording I made with a former bandmate, a tremendous guitar player, playing a backhround of crisp thumping blues licks on his Martin – as I read my poem in tempo with his playing. I really liked it, but during a version update of my site platform 3 years ago, I lost the mp3 player I had embedded owing to incompatibility. I have yet to upgrade it. Been intending to since it happened, but, soon…

    10. How wonderful! You bind us into the musical tilt of this sorrowful narration in a manner which is both evocative and emotive. I loved the short-lines, regular breaks in the rhythm, as well as the environment thus portrayed and the story thus told, just like a soul-stirring blues song.

      1. Thank you Anmol. When I originally publidhed this on my site, I had a well revorded spoken word version of it that I had created with a good friend of mine, a tremendous blues guitar player, plsying his Martin guitar in the background. It ws excellent, but when I updated the platform version of the WORDPRESS app, I lost the mp3 plug-in, and haven’t been able to restore it. I have since lost the recording, but trying to find it. Anyway, thank you again for the kind words Amnol!

      1. Thank you Annell. This was written years ago and inspired by an old blues player I knew back in my days in my rock band in the 1970’s. Fascinating soul.

      1. Thank you Sanaa, I appreciate your enthusiasm… 🙂 When I originally published this on my site in 2007, I had a well recorded spoken-word version of it I had created with a good friend of mine, a tremendous blues guitar player, playing his Martin guitar in the background. It Was lost when I updated my site. I haven’t been able to find it to restore it. I hoe to soon? Anyway, thank you again for the kind words Sanaa! 🙂

    11. You paint a full and rich picture, so many colors, textures and sounds. By the way, I have always thought The Tuesday Platform at Toads was an open link day for any poem, old or new, and not a prompt. All these years, have I misunderstood? Here’s what the mission statement says: The Tuesday Platform provides an unrestricted forum for sharing work of the poet’s choice.

      1. You are right on Colleen, I am new to TOADS, and I am the one who misunderstood. I am used to most everything bring prompts on dVerse. Sorry for being confusing.

    12. broadleaf husky
      thick as sorghum
      smooth as beale street bourbon… am sure I didn’t get every single cultural reference in your poem but it had a stirring beat that was totally enjoyable!

    13. Love it all, your post, Rob, and all the blues singers and players. Their instruments also, they are sooo neat looking, each scar has a story. And when their fingers won’t work they still sing.
      ..

    14. You’ve encapsulated the blues so well in this tribute, Rob. I love the way you describe his eyes ‘turbulent as that river’ and his voice ‘a tempered edge…
      broadleaf husky’ and ‘smooth as beale street bourbon’. You even personified his guitar, ‘marked and scarred by years of burden of witness’! But the thing that got to me, that I felt in my solar plexus, was in the lines:
      ‘rhythmic stomp
      stinging verse
      of broken promise
      failed love’.

      1. Glad this reonated so strongly for you Kim. In my many years in rock music, my band shared the bill with a mumber of genuine bluesman. The character in this poem was an amalgam of them, but most influenced by Muddy Waters and his Martin 00-18E acoustic-electric.

    15. Oh, I love the blues and your descriptions in this poem really hit home. My husband and I travel with a blues artist whenever we can. There’s nothing like blues pain to weather the voice into gravely awesome!

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