Month: January 2026

We Resume

~ a meditative realization ~

Original DDE™ art: ”The Stepping In” & “The Body Electric” by: rob kistner © 1/5/26


—-<§>—-

life is a chord continuum

no strummed beginning

no fading resolve—

only vibration resonating form

changing timbre through eternity

<~>

 

we are not born

we do not come from nothing

to become something

 

we step in

taking a different perspective

to resume what we are—

 

to resume what we always have been

at our core—

 

~ pure energy ~

 

energy…

pausing long enough

to take a body

to take a name

to mindfully observe—

 

to have a good metaphysical think

discuss encountered opinions

examine enlightenment

 

take a dimensional cognitive form

with which to explore

the temporal field—

experientially

 

time calls this a beginning

—birth

because time requires edges

 

but now

as we continue

as individual aware beings

nothing in us

embraces that story

for very long

 

its purpose—

as an aligned introduction

to the physical world…

eventually wanes

 

time is an eternal passage

temporal life is a hallway

through which we pass— slowly

 

the physical body is the vehicle

enabling us to touch the walls

to leave fingerprints—

of love…

of grief…

of music…

of art…

of poetry…

 

to encounter others

encountering us

Original DDE™ art: “Body Electric II” by: rob kistner © 1/5/26

what we call living

is simply attention paid

in our infinite forward motion

 

what we call our passing on

—death

is another of time’s edges

 

it is not disappearance

but release—

a reawakening

of our universal awareness

 

a turning

from this chosen temporal form—

a refocusing again on our eternal motion

 

nothing essential ends

energy does not retire—

 

it changes form

changes circumstance

changes perspective—

 

our temporal self

eventually becomes a stranger

in a physical world—

a world turned incompatible

to our expiring body…

strange to our eternal self

 

and so

 time sees it pass on—

as we resume

 

not as we’ve become

because we’ve always been—

 

an unbroken essence

of the body electric—-

 

in perpetual motion

of continuity—

 

and so — we resume…

 

<~>

 

rob kistner © 12/28/25

Poetry at: dVerse

 

Blessed Be The Birch

Original DDE™ art: “Bringing It Out” by: rob kistner © 12/24/25

—-<§>—-

hand-picked

hard-gotten treasures—

this is most definitely personal

 

pristine one-eighth split birch

felled but just yesterday

in this high mountain stand

 

once dried and cured

they will burn

with the crackle

of nature’s pure energy—

 

and the heady aroma

of deep wilderness freedom

 

upon returning to our cabin

the axe and wedge splitting

of this pole-straight beauty

will be an intoxicating release

 

stacking it cord after cord

in neatly organized piles

between our back porch

and our hand-hewn cedar shed—

both now sadly mine alone…

this has become for me—

commemoration

 

a blessed preparation

of our near-holy ritual—

one you so loved…

 

stoking the fires

 

this is how this ceremony begins

feeling the fibers of the birch trunk

freely and readily acquiesce

 

opening to the insistence

of the honed steel edge

hammering down unrelenting

from the end of its 36” long

smooth— sure-grip handle

 

hearing the virgin wood

crack — tear… and splinter

under my well-placed impact

is as music to my ears—

 

and a balm for my sorrow

 

sadly — there are those

who pervert the sacrament

with internal combustion

and chained metal teeth—

 

but that is simply sacrilegious

 

the art and ceremony

of creating perfect firewood

by the craft of the hand

lifts my heart—

centers my soul

 

it is second only

to the precise and perfect

burning of the birch—

swooning to its divine aroma

…remembering

 

it is in the fire

in the flames

of this sacrament

that I burn—

 

…I burn for you!

 

rob kistner © 12/24/25

Poetry at: dVerse

 

 

Persistent

Original DDE™ art: “Kingfisher” by: rob kistner © 1/5/26

—-<§>—-

The epiphany came to him at the river’s bend, where water forgot its hurry and learned to slow down, listening. On this Pacific Northwest morning, fog lifted like a curtain, revealing stones smoothed by centuries of insistence. He had come looking for answers, but the river offered only motion—constant, unarguable, patient.

A kingfisher cut the air, focused and sudden, striking the river’s surface — then rising again with nothing. Failure, the man realized, was not embarrassment here. The bird simply returned to the branch — alert, unashamed, ever-vigilant. In this he understood — nature did not measure worth by outcome, only by endeavor. To genuinely apply oneself was enough.

As the sun warmed him, he felt the old weight loosen. Trees stood without apology. The river ran unabashed.  He left the water’s edge seemingly unchanged, but something essential had shifted. The world was not asking him to be certain, only to be fully present—to keep moving, even when empty-beaked, toward the next bend.

stone keeps the river

learning the shape of patience—

time blinks — stone remains


Original DDE™ art: “Maybe Next Time” by: rob kistner © 1/5/26


rob kistner © 1/5/26

Poetry at: dVerse