The land-
she does not
know ownership
nor boundaries
languages
nor skin
moving where she will
inside or out
of our impositions
she takes
the sun
from all corners
and the rain
from all directions.
~ Janavi Held © 2017
Tag: nature photography
Flooding
Flooding
Within the
shadowy waters
of illusion
I built thick
castle walls
sunken deep
in those hazy waters
my heart froze
and slept for eons.
Awakened from this
deep sleep of ignorance
by a flood of
Your liberating
monsoon rain
You’ve opened the sky
in my heart
and the
walls of my fortress
are a sunken wreck
I have floated
to the surface
waves
crushed my body
as I rose You
carefully collected
all the lost parts
and knitted me
together with
Your lovely hands
saturated with
eternal love.
~ Janavi Held © 2017
Out on This Natural limb
Out on This Natural limb
On the ends
of wind-waving branches
I build my residence
watching all manner
of creatures grow into living
the fragrance of the wind
carrying pollen and ozone
feeds my inner ocean
as long fingers of sunlight reach
the vast expanse of my seeing.
Out on this natural limb
I wait for morning
clinging to the inside
of the earth’s desires.
~Janavi Held © 2017
Horizon
Horizon
I move too
as the waves
pierce the horizon
that distance
unattainable
longs for me as well
to embellish my ears
with wind
to swallow my eyes
inside that insatiable horizon.
Janavi Held © 2017
In her beautiful debut collection of poems……….
In her beautiful debut collection of poems, Janavi Held takes us on a journey of awakening, as she explores the ways in which her relationships with struggle, time, nature and beauty in this world, relate to her burgeoning relationship with the divine. From a restless “there are so many stories in my lost heart” to the epilogue’s triumphant: “the heart speaks softly now,” her poems and photographs artistically chart the course of a soul moving gracefully through existential angst, as revealed to us in this prayerful dialogue with her “oldest friend”.
Catherine L. Schweig
Founder of Journey of the Heart Poetry Project
Editor of Poetry as a Spiritual Practice (Golden Dragonfly Press, 2016)
In Praise of “Letters to My Oldest Friend”
Like many God-inspired poets of India’s Bhakti or devotional past (Mirabai and Chandidas come easily to mind), Janavi Held–writer, photographer, cineaste, observer of small miracles—chronicles the arrhythmia of a heart in love with Divinity. Letters to My Oldest Friend is a revelation. In elegant, spare verse and contemplative visual imagery, she gently cautions that we are victims of speeding postmodernism at risk of losing our souls, and that we will find the tools of our salvation in the quiet, unassuming details of everyday life. Here is a much needed roadmap to our inner geography, chartered by a gifted voice of conscience and our own better selves. Read, look, savor, and be inspired.
Letters to My Oldest Friend 