This is our idea of progress: 

We built a roof up over our heads,

In the goal of staying warm and dry,

But now, when we wake in the middle of the night,

We can’t look up

And see the stars so settled,

Shining faithfully in the sky.

We forgot how wide the world is

From our narrow rooms,

And how nice it is to cuddle up

To someone we love,

And listen to the winds blow,

And dream big dreams as big as the expanding cosmos.

Maybe it would be better to find a cave

And sleep in the opening, 

Where we can see the moon,

Journeying all night across the great canopy,

And bowing down in the morning 

In homage to the Sun,

And feel the dew form on our lips,

Stretch our fingertips up into the magic sunrise kissed air,

And realize how blessed we are,

If we have someone kind

To share it all with.

-jenn

 Night birds beware 

The cat is watching 

The cat is listening to your songs

From a high perch

From a dark window 

Only the shadow shows

The stark outline

Of the hidden audience 

A salience comes to mind

When the moon has only begun to wane

When lines blur

And fears soften

And just beyond the window pane 

A very intent

Hyper arousal of a

Hyper vigilant audience 

But nevertheless sing

Your lovely filterings

Your renderings of the sounds the stars make makes me question 

Where has the morning begun and the night ended 

Your cheerful chirp 

Softens the stark way we’ve come to define even

Life and Death 

You sing

And I will keep this cat inside for you

💗

-jenn

 Modesty sometimes means to shine

Because it would be false not to 

I wanted to pummel y’all into the ground

With my pain

I wanted everyone to know the sound 

Rain makes when it cries

When seven generations has come and gone

And still the sins of the fathers remain

As a curse on the land

And on me

My ancestors walked

But their troubles began 

Long before that 

But now at least the rain has stopped for me

Now I see with my own eyes 

The sun has been shining all along

All this time

And the sun SHINES 

Because 

It would be false modesty not to

-jenn

 A supermodel held the door open for me at the gym today.

“You didn’t have to do that!” I said with a sheepish grin.

“Yes I did!” she said.

“Because someone needed to make you smile again today!”

I chuckled a little bit.

“And someone else will really need to see you smile, too!

It’s contagious dontcha know?”

“Ok,” I said, still walking toward my car.

“Oh! I like your freckles, too!” she called out from behind me.

“And that little gap between your two front teeth!”

I wonder if I’d stayed all day

What all she possibly could have found

To expound about me to myself

Of positive qualities that she saw.

Well the world may never know.

But I learned a gentle power that exists 

When beauty finds beauty in everything else.

-jennifer

 And when he got to the part about Robespierre,

I had just taken a drink of water,

And I snorted very loud,

And the water shot out of my nose.

Several people around me gasped,

Especially those who had come to hate me at the poetry readings,

And especially because we had such an esteemed person reading his work that day.

But I took a napkin from the table and wiped my face,

And just as I was about to apologize,

The man held up his hand for me to come 

To where he was standing at the podium,

And said, “You in the back there, come up here.”

And then he motioned for some of his entourage 

To make room for me at the table where They sat closest to the lecturn from where he spoke.

And I didn’t know if I should go or not,

But I have a way of doing what I am bidden,

And I’ve never hidden from a fight or conflict of any kind,

But face it down 

And swallow it,

And make it a part of flesh and blood and mind.

So I collected my bag and my book and my half empty bottle of water,

And rose from my table there in the back where I sat alone,

And walked up to the front and took the chair that was offered to me.

Then I steel myself for any possible onslaught.

But the man said, “I would like to thank this woman here because she got my joke, 

And she got it to such an extent that she almost choked to death,”

And then he smiled,

And then he threw his head back and laughed,

And then he looked at me again with a big grin and said, Thank you, Madame.”

And I could tell you all the mysteries that came between,

And maybe I will someday,

But suffice it to say,

The thing I like about him is:

You can’t believe a word he says,

And therefore, he’s easy to listen to,

And therefore, he’s easy to ignore,

And any more than that would be insincere on my part to declare,

But my heart has had enough of the airs and gaits of false hopes and faiths,

The prehensiled tales of pretenses that

We suspend our beliefs from,

The fraying layers of insincerity.

Where can I be, in spite of myself?

Where can i go to hide from myself 

And you,

But into the lies that people tell about themselves and 

About me

And about the world that we all just merely perceive 

When the truth is funny 

And the “revolution” of most, such a joke.

-jennifer 

 As the crow flies

From your heart to mine,

My love for you will never wane.

It is only the Truth that waxes

In ourselves and others.

It is only the Truth that shines through us,

And other times we cloud it with our mind.

But my love for you will stand the test of time,

The test of space.

My Love for you will reach beyond

The shores of eternity

To stand still on that motionless place

Where reality meets impermanence.

There will I be.

There you will find me,

Loving you,

Forever.

-jennifer