Veracity 2011 By Drea
Truth comes from the heart is what this painting invokes in me.
I used layers of paint to add depth, rubbing for blending and the pulling out of shapes for form.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/veracity-2011-drea-jensen.html%5B/caption%5D

Yes! No!
by Mary Oliver

How necessary it is to have opinions! I think the spotted trout
lilies are satisfied, standing a few inches above the earth. I
think serenity is not something you just find in the world,
like a plum tree, holding up its white petals.

The violets, along the river, are opening their blue faces, like
small dark lanterns.

The green mosses, being so many, are as good as brawny.

How important it is to walk along, not in haste but slowly,
looking at everything and calling out

Yes! No! The

swan, for all his pomp, his robes of glass and petals, wants
only to be allowed to live on the nameless pond. The catbrier
is without fault. The water thrushes, down among the sloppy
rocks, are going crazy with happiness. Imagination is better
than a sharp instrument. To pay attention, this is our endless
and proper work.

Perception 2011 by Drea
Though there are always people looking at you, there is never just one impression that you leave.
Everyone has their own perception.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/perception-2011-drea-jensen.html

First Happenings
By Mary Oliver

A morning-glory morning with its usual glory, dawn particularly startling with citrons and mauves, petunias in the garden flashing their tender signals of gratitude. The sunflowers creak in their grass-colored dresses. Cosmos, the four o’clocks, the sweet alyssum nod to the roses who so very politely nod back.

And now it is time to go to work. At my desk I look out over the fluttering petals, little fires. Each one fresh and almost but not quite replicable.

Consider wearing such a satisfying body! Consider being, with your entire self, such a quiet prayer!

Golden Door 2014 by Drea
A golden door of incandescent brilliance, patience equanimity, and resolute with knowledge and respect. Radiant life energy to honor limitless love in glorious space.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/golden-door-2014-drea-jensen.html

Golden Door
By Drea

Incandescent brilliance
patience equanimity
resolute with knowledge and respect.

Radiant life energy
honor limitless love
glorious space.

Innocence is playful
as we walk
through that golden door.

Mysteries, Four of the Simple Ones
By Mary Oliver

How does the seed-grain feel
when it is just beginning to be wheat?

And how does the catbird feel
when the blue eggs break and become little catbirds,

maybe on midsummer night’s eve,
and without fanfare?

And how does the turtle feel as she covers her eggs
with the sweep of her feet,
then leaves them for the world to take care of?

Does she know her accomplishment?

And when the blue heron, beaking his long breast feathers,
sees one feather fall, does he know I will find it?
Will he see me holding it in my hand

as he opens his wings
softly and without a sound-
as he rises and floats over the water?

And this is just any day at the edge of the pond,
a black and leafy pond without a name
until I named it.

And what else can we do when the mysteries present themselves

but hope to pluck from the basket the brisk words
that will applaud them,

the heron, the turtle, the catbird, the seed-grain
kneeling in the dark earth, its body
opening into the golden world?

Daydream 2012 by Drea
“I want a storm to come and flood us into a song that no one wrote.”
~ Frida Kahlo
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/daydream-2012-drea-jensen.html

Muse Reverie
By Drea

Dreamers seek clearly
welcome the tempest
invite a flood.

Sweep away detritus
awaken spirit calls
the drum of a heart.

Pierce the veil of reality
nightly travel together
visionary star-gazer.

Muse reverie
invaluable chemistry becomes
a prayerful release.

Sunnyside Up 2013 by Drea
“it joined its two sisters in the house of hearing”
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/sunnyside-up-2013-drea-jensen.html

Bone
By Mary Oliver

1.

Understand, I am always trying to figure out
what the soul is,
and where hidden,
and what shape-

and so, last week,
when I found on the beach
the ear bone
of a pilot whale that may have died

hundreds of years ago, I thought
maybe I was close
to discovering something-
for the ear bone

2.

is the portion that lasts longest
in any of us, man or whale; shaped
like a squat spoon
with a pink scoop where

once, in the lively swimmer’s head,
it joined its two sisters
in the house of hearing,
it was only

two inches long-
and thought: the soul
might be like this-
so hard, so necessary-

3.

yet almost nothing.
Beside me
the gray sea
was opening and shutting its wave-doors,

unfolding over and over
its time-ridiculing roar;
I looked but I couldn’t see anything
through its dark-knit glare;

yet don’t we all know, the golden sand
is there at the bottom,
though our eyes have never seen it,
nor can our hands ever catch it

4.

lest we would sift it down
into fractions, and facts-
certainties-
and what the soul is, also

I believe I will never quite know.
Though I play at the edges of knowing,
truly I know
our part is not knowing,

but looking, and touching, and loving,
which is the way I walked on,
softly,
through the pale-pink morning light.

Worthy 2014 by Drea
When eyes appraise we feel powerfully known. Art demands courage and authenticity.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/worthy-2014-drea-jensen.html

Worthiness
By Drea
 
Eyes appraise,
powerfully known,
seek worthiness.
 
Demand courage,
authenticity,
acquiesce to inner strength.
 
Create space sacredly,
peaceful expansion,
vivid expression.
 
Open to success,
relax into being,
confidence simply not from this world.

Acquiesce 2014 by Drea
During the lengthy days of summer we welcome solstice sun.
It is a time to defer to sensitivity and recognize change patiently.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/acquiesce-2014-drea-jensen.html

 
Summer Solstice 2014
By Drea
 
Lengthy days of summer,
welcome solstice sun,
respond consciously.
 
Self discovery,
with gentle intention,
artful pleasure.
 
Defer to sensitivity,
recognize change patiently,
indulge in paradox.

Four Sacred Directions 2002 by Drea
“What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/four-sacred-directions-2002-drea-jensen.html

The Summer Day
By Mary Oliver

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Possibility 2011 by Drea
The emotion and feeling of one’s self can be seen in so many things outside of our everyday lives.
A leap of faith provides opportunity and action leads to a potential vision.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/possibility-2011-drea-jensen.html

Pulses Pull
By Drea
 
Come alive
nature of pleasure
attract unexpected beauty.
 
Temptation
support growth
compliment artistic soul.
 
Be humble
aware of emotion
magnetic pulses pull.
 
Lustful knowing
iconic fantasy
foretell future bliss.