Contact Me
To schedule a Reiki session in person or distance call or email me at:
Conrad Jestmore
316.686.5188
I am always happy to discuss Reiki, so feel free to contact me with any questions or for explanations.
Prose and Poetry Writings
Read my mystery novel "River of Murder."
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If your pet would like to have a poem or story written about himself or herself, or if you would like a written memorial for an animal, I am available to be commisioned for the project and would delight in bringing their story to life in print.
My poetry and prose has appeared in numerous national publications and journals, and spans all styles from light and humorous to serious.
Below are a few examples of some of my work featuring animals and nature as their subject matter. If interested, please contact me and we will discuss what you have in mind for the project and what the cost would be.
Memory of Prairie Past
On Chisholm Creek a heron stands,
awaiting her meal, watching the land,
recalling when cattle and drovers once roamed
the banks, through switchgrass, bluestem and brome.
She sees me watch from cathedrals of green,
‘neath Osage trees where our thoughts convene.
She’s never told of my hiding place,
and I don’t speak of her haunts on the trace.
If you pass by in a century or two,
ask the heron if she knows who
wandered these sloughs and stood the banks,
taking pleasure and giving thanks.
I quit and go my separate way,
sustained by grace bestowed today.
Collie Lullaby
In memory of Cosette
Some collies have big brown eyes,
Some collies have a beautiful nose,
Some collies like their pads rubbed,
Because they think they have toes.
This collie has big brown eyes,
And she has a beautiful nose.
She always gets pad-rubbies,
Because this is what she chose.
When she was just a puppy,
All nose and paws and head,
She wouldn’t touch pads on linoleum,
And did not want to be led.
Now she’s all grown and older,
With gray hair on her nose,
And she is so much bolder
In where she walks and goes.
Some collies have a beautiful nose,
Some collies have big brown eyes,
When this one drifts off to sleep,
She gets pad-rubs and never cries.
Instead she runs after rabbits,
Plays tag with friends in her dreams,
And herds her masters everywhere,
Chasing ducks from creeks and streams.
Some collies have big brown eyes,
Some collies have a beautiful nose,
Some collies like their pads rubbed,
Because they think they have toes.
Scanning the Cartographer’s Lines
This high exclamation point of a bluff
is offered up as compensation for trails we never took,
this rusty stuttering prairie
a dusty substitute for our unuttered words,
these articulated arroyos
surrogates for thoughts withheld.
Footsteps retraced seldom create an accurate map.
Were we barefoot then
or should I look for heavy booted imprints?
Take it the cliff the ground the gulch
take it all
along with the blue comfort this pen provides
as scribbled sky for our mute valleys.
Ethnic Cleansing
(a fable for all ages)
We had a battle-plan that the cattle and
the fishes would do the dirty dishes
after lunch.
But it fell apart from the very start,
when minnows and bovine matrons could not settle on which aprons,
and each remained within their separate bunch.
Though hunger struck the trout as well as Hereford stout,
and was a dreadful pain so ever-urgent,
lunch was set aside due to fin and udder pride,
based also on the issue of detergent.
No one agreed on suds or togs, so they both called in the dogs
to settle all the issues on the table.
But the canines were diverse, so the mutts and purebreds cursed
each other every chance that they were able.
With food that no one ate
and unwashed skillets that were so very dirty,
the dogs decreed mandate
a resolution so very extra-wordy:
"Every son and daughter will load the unused water
as deterrent in the weapons they must carry."
So children’s dreams were bad as squirt guns shot down their dads.
Dead fish rose to float and cows laid down in bloat
while every bass and Angus felt so wary.
But one day for lunch at school a calf played the part of fool,
and gave a hungry fish his jelly sandwich
out of hand.
Now this Charolais and Perch sit side-by-side at Sunday church,
and the elders smile at this deli trend which
little ones began.
Eastern Jerseys and Northern Pikes
now ride each others’ bikes,
and the dogs have long since been put to bay.
Aprons have been exchanged
and detergent rearranged,
because Bovine Intervention saved the day.
