A

Masterpiece
(imperfected)
A
weaving of words

Part the V

By:
Caleb Alan Kestner
2
 3

Masterpiece
(imperfected)
A
weaving of words

Part the V

By:
Caleb Alan Kestner
4

Copyright © 2009 by Caleb Kestner.

All Rights Reserved.

(I make no claim to the illustrations; they are in no way my creation, unless otherwise
noted. If you happen to know the author of one of the pictures listed, as anonymous,
please let me know so I can give them proper credit.)

2nd Story Press

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Printed in the United States

 5

This book is dedicated to my Mom

Who gave me words.
Thank you.
6
 7

Contents
IiLIII. The Thread
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~12
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiLIV. Socratic Syllables
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~15
iiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiLV. A Bee Sees
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~16
iiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiLVI. Mother Mine
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~18
iiiiiiiiiiiiii
iLVII. Ode to “The Josh”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~21
iiiiiiiiiiii
LVIII. Father
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~22
iiiiiiiiiii
iiLIX. Bailey Blue
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~25
iiiiiiiiiiiiiii
iiiLX. Dusk
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~26
iiiiiiiiiiiii
iiLXI. Exists Exquisitely My Heart
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~29
iiiiiiiiiiiiii
iLXII. . . . in the lost
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~30
iiiiiiiiiiiiii
LXIII. A poem for a Raqual
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~33
iiiiiiiii
iiLIV. A Masterpiece (imperfected) About the Author
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~34 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~39
iiiiiiiiiiii
iiiLV. Enrapt Acknowledgments
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~36 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~41
8
 9

Illustrations

Rainbow Strings II ~ Artistico101 13

Momentum ~ DemosthenesVoice 14

The Alphabet ~ abbarich 17

Baby Foot ~ 42-17251068 19

“The Josh” ~ Joshua Kestner 20

Father’s Hand ~ Anonymous 23

Bailey ~ Naomi Kestner 24

Cup of Death ~ Elihu Vedder 27

Heart Hands ~ Anonymous 28

Aqueduct near Rome ~ Cole Thomas 31

Marilyn's Dream ~ ImagineStudio 32

Appealing Fruit ~ LunarRose 35

O'Neill Cylinder ~ Anonymous 37

 11

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

as those who move easiest have learned to dance.”

Alexander Pope
12

The Thread

All my each and everything is hanging by a thread

Stretched unto infinity a filament, no more

Adrift amidst an ocean of the thoughts within my head

Alone at sea, no stars to guide, and losing sight of shore

Lost within a labyrinth with nothing but a string

Fading in the darkness of this never-ending way

My inner voice drowned out, all around me sirens sing

Promising my every want as long as I delay

By Clotho’s spun my life lays out, Atropos splays her shears

Thoughts unweaving in my hands, a tapestry of time

Shattered glass, my soul flows forth, in shards of slivered tears

All I am is metered in this oddly measured rhyme

Life, a string, a filament, a twisted bit of twine

Measuring eternity, the thread, the life, the line

13
14
 15

Socratic Syllables

Silhouettes of shadowed shapes slip softly through the night

Sweet and somber symphonies swell slowly at the sight
Surrounding silence resonates a surety of
sound
That sweeps through vaulted soaring skies and permeates the
ground

Subtle stars spray shining sparks that rain from up on high

Sundered from the heavens singing fire as they die
Swirling surf slides swiftly up a sandy seaside shore
To saturate the tidal pools and stagnant life
restore

Static in its sentience sits the surface of the soul

Some as deep as Pierian and others far more shoal
Sudden sadness slices through as does through sheaves the scythe
Then schisms every comfort sought however mad or
blithe

Sanctuaries seldom seem the havens that they ought, and what we seek entices more
then ever what we've caught
16

A Bee Sees

All again the moment callow

Builds upon the insight shallow
Come to wonder mulls the mind
Daring every thought in kind
Evanescent sits the soul
Failing in its only goal
Gone perfection fleeting had
Heart's unmeasured meters mad
Interest waning withers fast
Jointly incompletely cast
Kubla-Khan a cadence keens
Leisure liquid layered seams

Momentous swirls the waking dream

Night entwined in starry beam

Oppression offers all we've been

Predefining every then
Questions never stem the flow
Recalled in all we'll never know
Symbolic circle spheres on high
Tracking endless through the sky
Under heavens heavy shroud
Velvet soft floats light the cloud
Whimsy turns again its face
Xanthus runs his timeless race
Yearning ever for his home
Zephyr's child must endless roam
17
18

Mother
Mine

Mother mine a majesty from you to me does call

Perfected in remembrance of your each and every all

All the moments spent assuaging trembling little tears

All the late night hours spent in soothing aching ears

All the countless times you calmly answered every why

All I never would have done except you made me try

Every word you made me read no matter how I fought

Everything I've ever learned is based on what you've taught

Everything you had to do to get me to behave

Everything I have to give is cause of what you gave

Mother mine you gave me life then showed me how to live

You gave me everything I have then showed me how to give

You could have chose your own life and me thought never of, instead you gave your life
to me and with it all your love
19
20
 21

Ode
to
“The Josh"

There was a brother, once of mine,

as great as any be
Or at least that's what, when asked,
he always told to me

Fearlessly he led the way

though where he knew not quite
Confident that what he did,
if not quite good, was right

A brother who I followed,

from the age I first could walk
Who's every word I mimicked,
from the first that I could talk

Who led me through adventures,

of which most could only dream
Who showed me you are what you wish,
and not that which you seem

A brother who made swords from sticks,

and castles out of trees
Who war'd with me 'gainst fiend and foe
and flutterbyes and bees

Who led me safe cross broken roofs,

through violent wars of corn
Who helped to guide, with beaming pride,
each brand new brother born

Now years have come, and years have gone,

as years are prone to do
And many things that were have changed
yet one thing still rings true

There was a brother, once of mine,

as great as any be
He was and is and always shall
that brother be to me
22

Father

Father you are all I am, and all I wish to be

The stone on which I build me life
the light by which I see

Father you are the ruler, by which I measure man

Yours is the voice that quells my doubt
and tells me that I can

Father you are every word that flows forth from my tongue
The heart of every story loved or song my heart has sung

Father you are every step, on every path I take

The seed of every dream I have
both sleeping and awake

Father you are all I am, and all I wish to be

The greatest gift I ever gained
I gained when you gained me
23
24
 25

Bailey Blue

Bailey blue as babies do

your smile warms my heart
Piercing cries and whispered sighs
a majesty of art

Bailey blue your eyes its true

like oceans wrap the world
Deep as wells and soft as bells
a cloud in raindrop furled

Bailey blue your parents coo

"Sleep safe in loving peace,
knowing we will ever be
a love that doesn't cease"

Bailey blue if but you knew

the love, that you, surrounds
How much you change and rearrange
each heart your laugh confounds

Bailey blue a sky from two

small eyes looks out at me
As great a sight as, day or night,
I'll ever get to see
26

Dusk

Many days go slipping by

Quickly as we wonder why
Wherefore goes the time that’s lost?
As we ponder ageing's cost

All we’ve worked for just like sand

Slipping softly through our hands
Long before we first draw breath
Already we are bound for death

Every moment yet un-cast

Ever built upon the past
All alone we wander through
All the things we failed to do

Standing in the twilight hour

Watching night, the day, devour
Knowing all will soon be gone
Nothing left but hope of dawn

Life as such it ever is

Is lost amidst our hubris
But even as the shadows gather
Under Night Mares streaming lather

Undaunted gather we once more

Daring death itself to war
For though our end can naught but come
As all life's parts achieve their sum

And though our fight may gain no more

Then seconds add to our score
We still must stand against the dusk
And cleave to life within this husk

For life's not measured in its length,

~ or what you had to give
But just how hard, with what you had,
~ you truly tried to live
27
28
 29

Exists Exquisitely My Heart

Exists exquisitely my heart

Livid liquid living art
Serenely simple soft and sure
Perfect power pounding pure

Miseries unbidden rise

Stealing love with lovely lies
Draining me of all but dreams
Pain unending ever seems

Brightly bone is bound about

Structured on the insides out
Softly skin enshrouds my soul
Stitching of my parts a whole

Where then can I meaning find?

In my eyes? My hands? My mind?
Surely more must surely lie?
Wove within the depth of I?

Other organs orchestrate

Myriad movements never late
Clockwork; every action spells
Symphonies composed of cells

Never more to simply be

Mere existing ever me
Letting languid life flow by
Never caring where or why

Fingers move with majesty

Eyes a sea of what I see
Sinew slips in silence strong
Ears, my essence, sing a song

Hope, in blood, unfettered flows

Pulsing life, that living, grows
Truth is writ in all life's pains
"Life lives yet within your veins"
30

. . . in the lost

Somewhere in the lost it fell

as time slipped endless on
Unnoticed as it softly died
between the dusk and dawn

Somewhere in the time between

what is or will or was
When careless we turned blind away
from everything but us

Somewhere lay it dying

as we laughed along our way
Apathetic to the future
in our conquest of the day

Somewhere it defined us
in a past once long ago
Forgotten midst the memories
we're too ashamed to know

Somewhere it was everything

now everywhere it's naught
We know not what is missing
for what's missing isn't sought

Somewhere, somehow, we missed it

and its too late to return
For our presents built of fading past
we still refuse to learn

Somewhere in the lost it fell

and somewhere lies it still
Somewhere it may rise again,
for us, it never will.
31
32
 33

A poem for a Raquel

Softly spills the sunlight through the bright white golden hair
Searing sand shifts swiftly as she dances through the air

Cotton clouds caress the curve of bright blue summer sky

Evanescent folds float free, her figure swirling flies

Wind weeps breeze billows just above an emerald sea

Colors bright, in honor, dance, of all she dreams to be

Shadows sweep in silence swift across a burning beach

The moment builds in beauty a crescendo in its reach

Journey's onward ever joy, enticing hearts with love

Dreaming dances ever coy, beneath the all above
34

A
Masterpiece
(imperfected)

Happiness hath come hurray! and is forever here to stay

until, alas, should come the day that happiness doth flit away
for gone will then that joyness be as sorrow falls soft down on me

and tragic spirals through my soul

a maelstrom raging uncontrol-a bull comes raging livid mad,
eyes of flashing vengeance had,
the color driving this unrest? a bloodily torn unblest-read

i once a book that said "for every man there is a head,

for every head a mind within, containing thoughts that spark and spin"
a simple statement surely true, and yet it struck me odd he knew,
or at the least professed to know, that such a thing could thus be so,

how many fail to even dare to dream to think or even care

that any else but they exist or thought put forth to with insist
that more to all that is then they may just perhaps exist to say

'A word is ever best the heard when framed in sense and not absurd,
but then again, tis sense to say, that, such is such, a way a way,
but oh the wonder to be found when reason's left upon the ground!

And head, and thought (the mind creating), can soar absurd and unrelenting,
universes, worlds unknown, imaginations truly flown.

True the word may better be when understood as such to be,

but oh the many myriad more the soul can find in mad obscure.'
35
36

Enrapt

Enrapt in moments to quick to be had

Idealistically doomed to go mad

Seduced by perfection that cannot exist

Mind made utopias woven of mist

Optimist folly how useless to dream

How pointless the things that can never be seen

Yet here lies the measure of all that is man

The proof of his purpose, not cannot, but can

37
38
 39

About the Author

Caleb Kestner was born on his birthday and has been himself ever since. He is
currently residing where he is and will most likely stay there until he goes somewhere
else. He, like most people, never reads the parts of a book that start with Preface,
Afterword, Introduction, Foreword, Acknowledgements, or About the Author. Therefore
he has decided to not waste his time and will instead provide you with an excerpt from
Ebenezer Cunningham’s On the Electromagnetic Mass of a Moving Electron “It is
perhaps worth noting that "the principle of relativity" propounded by Bucherer in the
Phil. Mag. of April 1907 is in essence identical with the statement made in the beginning
of this paper. The principle referred to may be stated thus : that in the sequence of
electromagnetic phenomena the giving of an additional uniform translational velocity v to
the whole system of electric and magnetic bodies will not affect the phenomena observed
if this velocity v is at the same time given to the observer. The transformation of space
and time variables mentioned above shows a means of explaining this dependence of the
electromagnetic phenomena on relative motion only; and conversely it is a comparatively
simple matter to show that it is the only means. For it is required, among other things, to
explain how a light-wave travelling outwards in all directions with velocity C relative to
an observer A, may at the same time be travelling outwards in all directions with the
same velocity relative to an observer B moving relative to A with velocity v.” If at this
point you are still reading you are to be commended (but probably won’t be), unless of
course you skimmed to the end, realized that at some point I’d begun writing again and
just backtracked until you found where I’d started up again. In that case you should be
flogged for blatant disregard of superfluous-section-of-the-book reading etiquette (but
probably won’t be). This is Caleb’s first literary work and like most of his endeavors is
the result of many years worth of seemingly endless effort and consternation that came to
a rapid conclusion about a day after he actually started working on it. That being said,
much effort, time, thought, and most importantly inspiration, went into creating this work
of words and he would be remiss if he didn’t acknowledge the many manifold minds who
helped him along the way. Please turn the page. Unless the you just skipped down to
this point to see if the discussion of electromagnetic electron masses went all the way to
the end, then you should go back and work your way through like everyone else. If I can
take the time to copy and pa…I mean, “write” it you can take the time to read it!
40
 41

Acknowledgments
First off let me just say if I forget to mention you, it’s probably because you
didn’t matter enough for me to remember, no I’m sure you matter . . . to someone ;P.
Honestly though, I’m only going to focus on people who effected, influenced and
inspired my writing (that I was able to remember, ok, ok, I’ll stop). Anyway here goes,
thank you with all that I am for all that you’ve been.
Joanna for being the rubber wall I could bounce my concrete ideas off of. Jill for
believing I could measure up to my imagination, and in doing so giving me the
confidence to try. Jeremiah for being a porcupine patch farming communist and the
perfect devils advocate. David N. for getting paper cuts. Natalie for the magnificence
that is “The Duo!”. “The Joshness” for believing our genes combined can conquer the
world! (Provided yours don’t by osmosis.) John for being an outgoing, hilarious,
musical genius, so that I didn’t have to, and could just use you. James for wanting to
read my stuff more then I wanted to write it. Molly for proving that Disco isn’t dead.
Nathan for being a Kestner (seniority or not). Josh Anderson for moving up here, getting
five jobs, and giving me all the money so I can kick start my writing career (wink, wink,
nudge, nudge). Dayna for being so agreeable when it comes to disagreeing. Naomi for
being the smartest person I know . . . who thought Canada was a state. Ben for giving me
two nephews and another brother. April for buying this book (on the off chance I ever
find away of selling it to you). Marcus Dee, you better get your butt moving and start
hanging out with me so I’ll have something to mention in vol. 2. Raquel and Aunt Betsy,
how could one not be influenced by you. Cheri for the support and affirmation, now, and
as far back as I can remember. And for creating a family as awesome as my own
(Keitzells forever!). Calli for giving me somebody to confuse. Rachael Metcalf-Bernard,
for commenting, encouraging, and being Metcalf. The O’Connor Clan, and all the other
Kestner’s (including the honorary ones) for giving me a legacy to be part of. Scribd for
featuring me, giving me a platform and an audience, and to the Scribd readers for
showing me this might actually work. Finally, and most importantly Mary Jane and
Kevin Jay, not only are you the reason I exist, you’re the reasons for my existence. You
are all that I am, and all that I aspire to be. Dad you are the greatest user of words I
know, but even if you weren’t you’re strength of character gives more worth to you’re
words then the most brilliant of wordsmiths could ever hope to achieve. You’ve shown
me ways to use words that I never dreamed were possible (most of them probably
shouldn’t be). You are the giant upon whose shoulders I’m standing. Mom, Dad may
have given me something to aspire to but you gave me something to aspire with. Every
great achievement in my life is built on the foundations of your efforts. You have poured
more blood, sweat and tears into my life then any could ever dare to hope for. From the
very depths of my soul thank you. And thank you once again to those mentioned,
unmentioned and to be mentioned. This Oscar means the world to me, oh wait crap,
wrong speech.
42
 43

It’s Over!

http://www.aweavingofwords.blogspot.com
44
 45

Seriously, that’s it I didn’t write anything else for you to read.

46
 47

Why are you still here! I told you there’s

nothing else. Go away!
48
 49

Ok, you know what, fine, keep flipping pages,

I don’t even care.
50
51
52

Told you