“i’ve been meaning to tell you about the heron i saw
last thursday, winging soundless over the frozen reservoir.
in remembering, i rebirth my childlike love of birds
but this february, the sky is somber and gray
like the dove you almost ran over last night—
the road bent like the curve of your hair over your right ear;
i noticed your veins backlit in the orange bright of 5 pm.
with your hand, i rewrite my body with notes of bird calls
and things i forget to tell you about you.
pearlescent wingbacks, like the skin of dying ice
smack air full of pauses when you ask
if i am content to learn forever.
learn this—
i am composed of a multitude of
reasons not to fall in love with me,
the first and only being
your blood is only in you.” -adoration by Lily Kesten
To someone who doesn’t know her, Lily Kesten is as an enigma in a cozy sweater. She is a writer, a poet, a storyteller; she is a cat mom, a bagel lover, and a Swiftie. But above all, Kesten is someone who allows love to motivate and guide her as she works towards degrees in both Media Communication and English.
Kesten grew up in a little brick house on a farm in Woodford County, KY. She adored reading, working in the dirt, and spending time with her family as a child. Her little brother, her parents and her grandparents were her best friends. “My family has been super instrumental in who I am today,” Kesten said. “ They taught me how to love and to be kind and to care about others well.”
In eighth grade, Kesten’s parents decided to homeschool her, a choice that she described as “probably the best decision they could have made for me.” This transition from public schooling to homeschooling opened the door to opportunities Kesten would not have had otherwise. At 14, she worked alongside her father, a former Media Communications major at Asbury, learning how to do NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) press conferences. These experiences ignited her desire to tell stories.
“There is so much in the world to see,” Kesten said. “And all of these people have stories; I want to tell those stories.”
As an English major, Kesten claims books and poems formed much of her identity. Kesten said, “I’ve been reading since pre-school, and I read a lot as a child, so I was able to learn how the world works very early on.” She specifically loves poetry because she believes that “it speaks very deeply to the essence of being human.”
The combination of majoring in English and Media Communication puts Kesten in the position to tell stories as she has dreamt for over half a decade. “As an English major, I constantly read stories, and so I get to see these stories, and I get to write about them,” she said. “And then I get to turn around, and I get to tell my own stories through Media Comm.”
Whether it be through writing or broadcasting, Kesten says she pursues beauty. “I tend to focus on and be motivated by what I love. I promote that instead of putting attention on the injustices in the world. Let’s find joy in this [injustice], let’s find beauty in this. I am always in search of how I can make things beautiful.”
