One tree has turned,

And the others fold their branches,

Narrow their eyes,

And shake their heads.

"It's not even gotten cold yet," they scoff

And hang on to their green.

"Maybe this year the frost won't come," they tell themselves.

And as the wind blows their tops around,

They peer this way and that and look for signs.

I have turned with that one tree

Because I see its wisdom.

It seems like I have given up,

Given out, that I wallow in doubt,

But I have deep faith, like roots.

I believe in you and love and life,

And I can see

That Winter is coming.

-jenn

Shall I compare you to a rose?

A rose is much too tame,

And you are wild as a bobcat

That fucks amidst the thickets and the thorns.

And I cannot tell which pricks come from your claws or teeth or briars,

But all of it is good.

So turn me now and anthropomorph,

And look me in the eye

While you purr.

And I will look you in the eye, too.

-jenn

I have wondered where you are now,

And the cosmos answers me.

A flash in my mind reveals today

You are a litter of rabbits just born,

Hidden in the winter leaves,

And your spirit, innocent and new,

Sleeps curled up and warm and nurses

From the great and living mother.

And after this you may exist for only a second or two,

Maybe a day as a living sac of spider eggs.

And from there you may sprout 

As a mushroom in the forest,

That pops up from nowhere over night.

My hope is that you will thrive in every experience of life,

Though selfishly I pray,

That sometime when your time has come to live again,

That it will be my time to live again too,

And I will find you,

And live again with you.

-jenn

My dreams show me the Reality

In terms I understand.

Great archetypal pictures

Say millennial thousand words.

Clarity emerges with the colors orange and green and blue,

And the love that always follows

Is the dynamic truth.

Everything else disappears 

In flames or floods or winds.

Everything else is illusion

Except the great charisma of Love.

-jenn 

I dreamed of you like a fox

That runs just ahead of the night.

Your coat was a red and orange flame

And lit your path across the dark sky.

You are fast and strong and smart

And beautiful,

And the stars are envious.

They can barely bare to look at you.

They stand aloof and cold from a long way off

And try not to compare themselves.

But one comet stares,

Head fully turned,

And dares you to turn, too.

It longs to crash into the earth

Alongside your lovely forest,

Just to see,

Just to know

How dazzling you really are

In person. 

-jenn

More and more I find my life to be a dream

That flows over a great paddle wheel.

It dips and splashes and gets caught up

And goes around the wheel again,

And part of it moves on,

And part of it stays in the great commotion.

And I am torn between what I perceive is me.

Is it the part that went in peace,

Flowing naturally down the stream?

Or is it the part where my heart seems to want to be,

Here in the turning, churning energy of the great wheel?

Maybe I'm still both,

Hovering in evaporation,

A great chiasm between

All the things I want to be

And all the things I am.

-jenn

You can't find a way that works

And stick to that your whole life through.

The way that works will wander off 

And leave you far behind.

You will become disingenuous,

Your hairstyle dated.

The face you plaster on yourself

Will be an obvious fake.

The way that works will keep you guessing,

And thereby, will promote a youthful appearance,

One marked by innocent curiosity 

And love of discovery.

If you can flow with the way that works

Along the bends and turns of life,

Through places that are beautiful,

And through the places that you feel you shouldn't have to go,

Maybe one day the light will dawn

On the intense string of heartbeats, 

That living your exact journey has quite been,

Your precise attempt at living the way that works for you.

-jenn