Original DDE™ art: “Long And Winding” — by: rob kistner ©4/19/26
—-<§>—-
….road opens
like a promise
maybe a lie
still — you go
….
a map fragment:
mile 0 — departure
mile 12 — same thought
mile 47 — renamed it “new”
they sell distance
as cure
….
engine hum
becomes belief
forward
forward
….
flash:
he checks into a room
different city
same suitcase
same hesitation
unpacks nothing
turns on a light
calls it arrival
….
horizon performs
sly escape
retreats perfectly
you follow
….
note to traveler:
weather migrates with you
storms included
do not assume
elsewhere = otherwise
….
there is motion
not change
there is scenery
not shift
….
postcard:
wish you were here
but I am
where you were
and it hasn’t helped
….
you begin to wonder
you begin to suspect
you begin to doubt
….
diagram:
self ~> carried
mind ~> persistent
past ~> unchecked baggage
destination:
repetition
….
still
you keep going
….
flash:
she crosses an ocean
watches her reflection
in a window
superimposed
on a foreign skyline
recognizes it
immediately disappointed
….
the myth cracks
travel
as escape
fails
no distance
great enough
….
warning:
movement is not removal
it is translation
you remain legible
everywhere
….
but
there
especially
there
….
a moment
unplanned
unsold
….
no map
no narrative
you forgot
to be
the one
who left
….
flash :
no name
no history
just breath
>>>entering
leaving>>>
….
and for that sliver
that fleeting moment
the journey begins to end
not by arrival
but by disappearance —
by absence —
by loss—
by forgetting .…
<~>
rob kistner © 4/23/26
I know that way of travelling so well… and for me it served a lot of purpose (with a map)
I think we’ve all been down that road one way or another wishing for something, something different, some different outcome, maybe carrying regret with us, but all you really get is time past — and the world essentially remained the same.
How beautifully you picture the arrival/departure, the travel and the quest, until that flicker of a moment when you realize that the horizon has disappeared and you have arrived, have always arrived. As you. (Have I misinterpreted it? Nevertheless, I love it.) the true interpretation Dora is whatever you make it. 🙂
You interpreted well. It says wherever you go there you are and if there’s something you’re running from or running to likelihood, it will not be at your destination. And if you chase long enough, it slips away in the memory frequently forgotten. The thing I really love about this form. Dora is it’s fragmentation. There’s freedom in that. You might go through it one section speaks to you in one way another section. Speak to you another way. The whole thing may speak to nothing may speak to you, but that’s beautiful. It’s a word journey. It’s not a single destination.
A long and winding (but beautiful!!) creation, Rob. Thanks
You’re most welcome Ron. Into me like life if you don’t catch what you’re chasing or seeking or looking for immediately, you might as well forget it cause it would be different if it takes long enough and it won’t hit you the same. another interpretation is, if you’re in this situation, and you went out and want to be in a different place, do it while it is in your mind — or you may never do it. Just make sure it sure as you can that is what you really want.
Rob, I would love to hear you read this one out loud. I appreciate the way you stepped the reader through the journey. The poem has taken on that long journey shape as it travels down the page.
I was listening to George Harrison this morning.
Inflection is important in this form. But I think the way to lay it out. It’s open to individual inflection individual interpretation. It’s not intended to be one thing. When I write in this form, I think I stay with the spirit of it by allowing it to be free flowing, allow it to be thoughts in the moment sometimes they connect tightly at each other sometimes they branch off from each other. And in the readers perspective in the readers’s hands, it can be what they want it That’s how I enter – but the form if I’m wrong then I’m gonna stay wrong because I love it the way I look at it — so if it’s not a traditional, view, that’s my interpretation of the traditional, either way I love it! 🙂 by the way, I love me my George Harrison! 🙂
Loved the format. The depression that flattens out experience or quest : “turned on the light // called it arrival” got to me.
I certainly don’t wanna write this format every poem but maybe one a week it just really goes well the way my branching mind thinks