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Ink

Caleb Kestner

Contents I Ink 5 A poem for a Raquel 7 A()las(s) in class 8 What is this Love? 9 Love is 10 Silent 12 Leaving Normal 14 Mountain 18 edeturs Pleaze Skip Theis Pome! 20 Ode to The Josh 21 Bailey Blue 22 Sleeping in the Sand 23 A Bee Sees 24

Light
Part the I

Falling up into the endless all above ascend now I Onward through the halls of heaven forth upon a sea of sky

Ink
A transformation, white to black Wet to dry, it cant change back A metamorphosis of sorts From paupers holes to wealthy courts From thought to word, from mind to page From weak to strong, from dunce to sage From worthless to priceless, from empty to filled From hidden to shown, from skill-less to skilled From pointless to perfect, from dead to alive From ugly to beauty, from shrivel to strive From fallen to lifted, from tainted to pure From tawdry to simple, from sickness to cure Ink flows forth to trace a path Lines of beauty, peace or wrath Present moments carved in past Saved for futures yet un-cast Ideas build and thoughts conspire Imagination to inspire All that is, or still might be All that was, persevered in thee Words unmeasured times unknown All by this are simply shown Ink

A poem for a Raquel

by: a Caleb 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 light blue summer sky Evanescent, folds float free, her figure swirling flies Wind weeps breezy 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 Frozen movement lives eternal printed on the page Spilling ever endless from the confines of its cage Journeys onward ever Joy; enticing hearts with love Dreaming dances ever coy, beneath the all above

A( )las(s) in class
By: a Student Alas in class I cannot stand, for sitting stuck I am Bricked in within an open tomb, a lamb not on the lamb Penned in among a hundred sheep, as subtle thought is shorn The lecture lies on liberty, its dogma badly worn A lass up front, her words float forth, entreating minds, Obey! A silence echoes loudly back, against the yawning day Perhaps tis cruel to vicious rule this agony too long To taunting treat and witty beat this croaking sirens song Alas in class I must to stay, or lass will doom my GPA But even so I worry not, as time entangles now my lot For though this lass has caught me in a class from which I wish to win my freedom yet I do not fear the warped ties that bind me here at last a lass will be no more, the bit of class will dull it's bore And freedom will at last then come as class, alas and this, is done

What is this Love?

What is this Love? Stamped thick, left, above a hand, sewn in melded speckles on the inside of a wrist, shivering over straining sinew. What is this Love? That stains and scars. That first finds life in searing pain, and slips into existence softly, weeping crimson tears. What is this Love? Wept in ink from a singing sword. Etched eternal into silken skin. Writ, ebony on alabaster, like midnight spilt on moonlit snow. Birthed bleeding, blood in bold. What is this Love? This word, this string of letters. Left in life, on life, until no life is left.

Inspired by: Emily M.

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Love is...
By: ...is loved Love is no brash action, ~ no feeling fleeting felt Love is not entrancement, ~ or hearts begun to melt Love is not a moment, ~ an instant lost in time Love is not a serenade, ~ or pleasing bit of rhyme Love is not perfection, ~ or beauty blemish free Love is not the senses, ~ a thing you touch or see Love is ever endless, ~ pouring forth, consuming all Love will ever lift us up, ~ regardless why we fall Love will not abandon, ~ and cannot fail to hope Love has no blind eye to turn, ~ no deeds beyond its scope Love is all accepting, ~ and turns no soul away, ~~ and though it need not lose the fight, ~~~ surrenders every day.

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Silent
Silent nighttime sits on high The moon six stars, the earth and I Liquid darkness all around A symphony in silence found Beauty of an instant felt Peace as worries slowly melt Cool and quiet city air Relaxed upon

13 a concrete stair Sterile glass and metal rise Glory spun that slowly dies Heavens splendor softly falls Down upon these concrete halls Mirrored structures soaring fly Capturing the very sky Perfect moment slips away Returns again the dawning day Lost forever to the past and futures doomed to fail to last

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Leaving Normal
Stepping through the looking glass there is no stepping back The journey once accepted is a never-ending track Adventure leads to places that we should not dare to go Questions lead to answers that we should not dare to know To wander through the wardrobe is to leave whats safe behind Forever leaving normal for the hope of what you'll find A journey of a thousand steps that cannot be retraced

A single step once taken that can never be erased Dangerous the road that flows away from your front door Keep your feet or it may sweep you to a distant shore Should ever you joust windmills or travel mystic lands Blaze trails through rotting jungles caravan cross burning sand Remember with each victory theres also something lost

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17 Theres a price for each adventure thats not always worth the cost So whether its the seven seas or past the worlds own edge Regardless of the paths you take or promises you pledge Should find you Never Never Land and finding choose to go All that which you had afore will neer again be so For once youve rode Laputa or Pandoras Box unbound Once love has hold your spirit or wisdom had been found

Once blind eyes have been opened or sirens song is heard Once tragedy has struck so hard that laughter seems absurd Once Wonderland is entered your soul is ever changed The world you left behind you is ever left estranged You can return to bridges burned but oer them none may pass For once you stray there is no way to get back through the glass

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The Mountain
Wrinkled stone sags gently down the mountain's aged face, tufts of snowy hair stream down his craggy chin and pool softly at his feet Cavernous lungs pull moist air in through limestone teeth and moss-lined nostrils to feed his golden veins All across the mountain a cloak of life blooms and flourishes, entire lifetimes cascading in and out of existence between the beats of his heart The mountain sleeps, a giant who dreams of far off places and tells himself that in a moment he'll rise from the cradle of his birth, stretching out the ridges of his skin and the granite peaks of his spine His eyelids will crack open with a rumble; pine tree lashes fluttering as he looks with sliver eyes at the world for the first time Hell shake off the residue of his creation and with thundering steps go explore this place that gave him life just moments before In a moment, he thinks to himself as his heart continues its steady beat in a moment, as he slips slowly back into his dreams in a moment, as all around him life rushes on in a moment

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edeturs Pleaze Skip Theis Pome!

Bye; Kalab Kesnur
ise writtings this to speaks abouts a Terrible immposation a pandemic epidemic that is Sweepings thru the nashun with words Mispelt and gramer wong in evre single skool its amasing evre student doesent Grajuate a fool the Greatist problem I have found in all mi manie sirchings is the lac of dots and Sqiggle lines that keep your writings lureching the Sentenzes all run amuk the Pareagrafhs are gon just lissen to the way thay sing in all those Wrapping songs so as you no this problem must of Coarse be delt with quicklee for rob the pen of gramer and Smart thoughts wil all grow sicklee we needs to trulee educates each child in its verbs to teach them what a Pronown be bad habits we must curb now you may find it funy when a person Fumbles letters you laugfh and moc theyre Stumbles as you shuld fore wes there bettors Butt if we do knot change there ways and give a helpping hand they will REC our gorgous language and theyel tear a part ouwer land so Weather you may chuze to here or give this Pome a thought you can knot ever say again that of this you new nought a Tragide it seems to me is creeping up on man a loss of writen Beauty could now finelee be at hand and though you may not feel this problum is of massive Relavance remember without gramer that thered be know written Elegence

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Ode to The Josh"

By: the brother 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, one thing, though, 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

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Bailey Blue
By: an Uncle 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

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Sleeping in the Sand

Sand sits soft, under a setting sun Long grass lists, lazy in the evening breeze Coconuts take root in dunes, their journey done Short trips down from swaying trees

Leather-bound, books lay cradled in the sand A jar of ink, awaiting use, their only true companion Winding down a pocket watch lays ticking in a hand Deep in dreams, its owner splayed, sleeping in abandon

Grey is the fedora, worn, perched upon his face Perfects is the moment, still, caught in Times embrace

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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

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Contents II The Sparrow 28 I are . . . I am 30 What Happens Once Youve Fallen? 32 Human 35 Dusk 36 Atlas us, a 38 Hubris 40 Ode to a Pencil 42 Paper Cut 43 Exists Exquisitely My Heart 45 Apathy 46 The Wall 49 . . . in the lost 50

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Dark
Part the II

Imagine no existence; its easy to pretend. Just find your golden bullet, and illustrate an end.

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The Sparrow
By: Broken I once shattered broken fell into deep an empty well Screaming as I falling did many out the fears I'd hid Landing hard I hardly knew wherefore what I next should do Deeply lying shadow shroud 'round me echoed silence loud Thus remaining wonder I feeble dare to chance a cry Or resting wait till strength return as quick away my life does burn Deep above me sits the sky little caring if I die Freedom midst its clouds does reign above a prison built of pain As I bemoaned the fate of me did land a sparrow on my knee And staring I my breath did catch to see this life upon this wretch Then knowing I to death was bound fell dead the sparrow on the ground Time reversing backward spun up where to first I'd begun Answer none I have to give of why once dying now I live Ever recall shall I that day in terror hopeless as I lay How all I had did fail me when I fell to pain a prisoner, and how but a simple sparrows fall did thus return to me my all

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30 I are shattered I are . . . I am fragment splinter by: myself I am the cold frozen winter I are inferno fire ashes I am shackles chains and lashes I are heartache wailing sorrow I am future past and morrow I are hopeless weeping sadness I am passion rage and madness

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I are beauty fleeting shallow I am careless stark and callow I are conquered cringing choice-less I am silent mute and voiceless I are teardrops softly crying I am the dead doomed and dying I are human broken grieving I am my own ending weaving

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What Happens Once You've Fallen?

By: Falling What happens once you fail? Success no longer possible your heart in shame is veiled. What happens when you've given up and ceded to your fears? When hope fades like the morning mist and pain transforms to tears. What happens when you lose the fight and know you've lost much more? When the battle finally gets you in this never ending war. And how are you supposed to cope when you know it's all been lost? When you pay the price for what you want and it isn't worth the cost. Where do you go or turn to when the world has turned on you? When all you've givens not enough and there's nothing more to do. You recognize that all will fall though each in their own way. You stand with calm assurance that they've not yet won the day. And though it seems that all is lost and hope itself has fled. As long as you've the strength to rise redemption isn't dead.

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Human
By: I Human I enter, human I leave Human I'm happy, human I grieve Human I ponder, human I pause Human I look for some purpose or cause Human I tower, human I fall Human I hurtle, human I crawl Human I wonder, human I see Human I search for the human in me Human I hope and yet human I fail Human I'm locked in this fight to prevail Human I'm only, perfectly flawed Human by heaven in every way awed Human I've loved, and human betrayed Human I've followed, human I've strayed Human I've laughed, and human I'll cry Human I've lived, and human I'll die Human forever, human soon gone Human too little, human too long Human I am, and I was, and will be Human I wait, till from human I'm free

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Dusk

Many days go slipping by Quickly as we wonder why Wherefore goes the time thats lost? As we ponder ageing's cost All weve 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 added 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

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Atlas
I Atlas us, a world do hold on our shoulders bent and bowed. All our might to hold on high, the pieces of a falling sky. Once upon a time ago, mighty pillars held it so. But time their glories turned bereft, foundations remnants all that's left. Once composed of all the world. Nations gathered, now lay hurled. Shattered systems careless strewn, left to rot amidst their ruin. Majestic once the world their own, the sun upon them ever shown. Now reduced to shadows only, broken, angry, scared and lonely. Their weighty hubris crumbled mass, ticking through time's hourglass. Of all the earth a few were master, till rivalry gave birth disaster. As clouds of war did roar and rumble, the sagging sky began to tumble. Then rose two giants from the ashes. Who saved the sky, between their clashes, and grabbing hold the pillars tattered. Each the other smashed and battered.

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us, a
II On and on the giants battled, as their blows the heavens rattled. Colossus both, though juxtaposed, Titans, different each composed. Us of copper, steel, and stone. Them of iron, flesh, and bone. "Come" we pleaded "all unwanted". "Obey!" demanded they undaunted. Growing ever each their powers, striving each for heavens bowers. Through the cold they fight unending, all the world about the rending. At last one giant finally falls, down upon its iron walls. Victors we, alone now standing, all the world of us demanding. Tower us above them all. Holding heaven, lest it fall. As Atlas was, in ancient verse, to bear this burden we are cursed No other recourse can there be, no one to take this weight from we. So here we stand, and stand alone, the world about our ankles thrown. At us a world with hate may cry, but on our shoulders sits the sky.

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Hubris
By: not God Hubris of the human soul Bliss that slowly takes its toll Grasping minds cant comprehend Breaking thoughts that need but bend Far to busy fixing things, to ever get them right They disagree to disagree, and only talk to fight Pride their overwhelming flaw, Babels built of sand Soaring castles in the sky, delusions more then grand Ever rolling rocks uphill, the repetition builds Self inflated genius that their ego quickly guilds Shadows of their ignorance are cast across their path To try and bring this fact to light just sparks indignant wrath Happy to reside within the worlds that they create Blind to all they need to see until its far too late Stubborn in their surety of what they think they know Confident of evidence that never seems to show Carefully they craft the information that they find Selecting slowly bit by bit what goes into their mind Making their decisions long before they need decide Locked inside the layers that at first theyd used too hide Seeing their deficiencies in everyone but them They prosecute their problems in the people they condemn For understanding, in the end, it never even tries Lost forever deep within its labyrinth of lies

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Ode to a Pencil
Pencil, pencil on the ground Lying there without a sound What callused heart abandoned thee? Took all you had then set you free? How fickle is the human mind That leaves once valued things behind Cast off you lay there all alone Spent and broken on the stone Your life was measured in your length Your worth in words you gave And when you could erase no more They tossed you to your grave

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Paper Cut
(Dedicated to David N.)
Pain thou name is paper cut Foe thou name is page Ruthlessly I was attacked Provoked into this rage Dare thee I, again to try To rend me skin from skin For if thou do then I shall too To thee and all thy kin

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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"

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Apathy

"Apathetic beauty pools, perfectly in scarlet spools; stagnant, static, silent still. Sapping, soft, the soul of will." Bye; Me. I It's easier if you do not care (So please pay no attention). Chains build the best of Apathy, so feel no need to mention. Or strongly speak, or fight, or seek, to further on your cause. It's best, for all, if you just fall and for the present pause. Just lay your down, put sleep your sound. Forget, relax, unwind. You've done your most, so raise a toast, and ease your burdened mind. Let go, let others fight the fight, you've done so much, so far. And how could any really blame? And why would you feel any shame, if you should find yourself too lame, and rest for just awhile. I'm sure what must be done will be, completed with no need of thee. That just because you step aside, the world will not itself de-ride. There is (no) need for you to care, to work or wish or Hope (or) dare. There is (no) more that could be done, with you applied then were you gone. The less you give (the more for you II the less you work) the less to do. Yes you could care. But. is There need, for every effort, every deed. would not It better be for all if all to better felt no call? If better could be stored away and kept for you some later day So please pay no attention to. What pleas may come your way? Let go, let obligation, Live to bilk some other's day. Life's short (so) as you make it don't just squander as you go. For if they never have it it's a loss they'll never. Know. Keep all you can and when the then at last does dark your door. I'm sure you'll harbor, know regrets, that you have all the more. So do not care, and do not dare, and do not think! of others. For in the end you'll have no friend, and that's so far away. Enjoy the now; regard, less, how. And die with every day.

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The Wall
Once upon a midnight dreary Came a traveler wet and weary His cloak was sodden through and through Upon his feet more holes then shoe The road was rough the way was forlorn The man was thin and weak and worn Then all at once the rough road ended The traveler stopped, his quest suspended A giant wall stood in his way As tall as night as long as day So there he sat to ponder and wonder what to do To pass this insurmountable obstruction of his view There was no wood within this wall, nor brick or rock or steel For it was made of stronger things then those we think we feel This wall was made of all in life that strives to make you fail Of pain, and lies, and hardship; of dead, and rot, and stale The man at first was locked with fear, immobilized by shame The thousand things that hed done wrong all rushed to fill his brain Then as he sat there shaking, a shudder shook the wall Its surface started cracking and chunks began to fall And with a sigh of effort the man rose to his feet Hed come too far and worked to long to let himself be beat So with a mighty crash the wall did rend its self-apart And the man strode once more onward through the walls now broken heart

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. . . 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.

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The End

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Copyright 2010 2nd Story Publishing (Rough Copy)