Four Sacred Directions 2002 by Drea
Life is an ever changing thing, be it seasons, direction, or age.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/four-sacred-directions-2002-drea-jensen.html

Red Bird Explains Himself
By Mary Oliver

“Yes, I was the brilliance floating over the snow
and I was the song in the summer leaves, but this was
only the first trick
I had hold of among my other mythologies,
for I also knew obedience: bringing sticks to the nest,
food to the young, kisses to my bride.

But don’t stop there, stay with me: listen.

If I was the song that entered your heart
then I was the music of your heart, that you wanted and needed,
and thus the wilderness bloomed there, with all its
followers: gardeners, lovers, people who weep
for the death of rivers.

And this was my true task, to be the
music of the body. Do you understand? For truly the body needs
a song, a spirit, a soul. And no less, to make this body work,
the soul has need of a body,
and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.”

Money Honey 2011 by Drea
Good fortune is all around us. All we have to do is embrace it.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/money-honey-2011-drea-jensen.html

Abundance

When meaningful experiences

Collect

Deepen

And find strength

The energy overflows

Provides infinite love

~ A well deep as our souls.

Generous hands lift up our spirits

Guidance whispers in our ears,

“The Universe is on your side!”

Blessings multiply

We are loved

Complete with healing wings

Ready for flight.

By Drea

Autumn 2012 by Drea
“How everything lives, shifting from one bright vision to another, forever in these momentary pastures.” ~ Mary Oliver
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/autumn-2012-drea-jensen.html%5B/caption%5D

Fall Song
By Mary Oliver

Another year gone, leaving everywhere
its rich spiced residues: vines, leaves,

the uneaten fruits crumbling damply
in the shadows, unmattering back

from the particular island
of this summer, this NOW, that now is nowhere

except underfoot, moldering
in that black subterranean castle

of unobservable mysteries – roots and sealed seeds
and the wanderings of water. This

I try to remember when time’s measure
painfully chafes, for instance when autumn

flares out at the last, boisterous and like us longing
to stay – how everything lives, shifting

from one bright vision to another, forever
in these momentary pastures.

Marvel 2012 by Drea
Step back to see the sensational differences in life’s situations.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/marvel-2012-drea-jensen.html

I will try
By Mary Oliver

I will try.
I will step from the house to see what I see
and hear and I will praise it.
I did not come into this world
to be comforted.
I come, like red bird, to sing.
But I’m not red bird, with his head-mop of flame
and the red triangle of his mouth
full of tongue and whistles,
but a woman whose love has vanished
who thinks now, too much, of roots
and the dark places
where everything is simply holding on.
But this too, I believe, is a place
where God is keeping watch
until we rise, and step forth again and–
but wait. Be still. Listen!
Is it red bird? Or something
inside myself, singing?

Contact 2004 By Drea
The path ahead isn’t always the easiest one to travel, but often the most important.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/contact-2004-drea-jensen.html

Mysteries, Yes
By Mary Oliver

Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous
to be understood.

How grass can be nourishing in the
mouths of the lambs.
How rivers and stones are forever
in allegiance with gravity
while we ourselves dream of rising.
How two hands touch and the bonds
will never be broken.
How people come, from delight or the
scars of damage,
to the comfort of a poem.

Let me keep my distance, always, from those
who think they have the answers.

Let me keep company always with those who say
“Look!” and laugh in astonishment,
and bow their heads.

Abundance 2012 by Drea
With everything that is out there in the world, we must remember to push through, and get what really matters and is important to us.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/abundance-2012-drea-jensen.html

Peonies
By Mary Oliver

This morning the green fists of the peonies are getting ready
to break my heart
as the sun rises,
as the sun strokes them with his old, buttery fingers

and they open —
pools of lace,
white and pink —
and all day the black ants climb over them,

boring their deep and mysterious holes
into the curls,
craving the sweet sap,
taking it away

to their dark, underground cities —
and all day
under the shifty wind,
as in a dance to the great wedding,

the flowers bend their bright bodies,
and tip their fragrance to the air,
and rise,
their red stems holding

all that dampness and recklessness
gladly and lightly,
and there it is again —
beauty the brave, the exemplary,

blazing open.
Do you love this world?
Do you cherish your humble and silky life?
Do you adore the green grass, with its terror beneath?

Do you also hurry, half-dressed and barefoot, into the garden,
and softly,
and exclaiming of their dearness,
fill your arms with the white and pink flowers,

with their honeyed heaviness, their lush trembling,
their eagerness
to be wild and perfect for a moment, before they are
nothing, forever?

Mystic 2014 by Drea
Using patience and introspection we can focus on rejoicing and know that new opportunities will come. Greater spiritual awareness comes when we manifest magical relationships.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/mystic-2014-drea-jensen.html

Black Swallowtail
By Mary Oliver

The caterpillar,
interesting but not exactly lovely,
humped along among the parley leaves
eating, always eating. Then
one night it was gone and in its place
a small green confinement hung by two silk threads
on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it
except faith, and patience. And then one morning

it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

Resonance 2013 by Drea
“Love, love, love, it was the core of my life, from which, of course, comes the word for the heart.” ~ Mary Oliver
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/resonance-2013-drea-jensen.html

Of Love
By Mary Oliver

I have been in love more times than one,
thank the Lord. Sometimes it was lasting
whether active or not. Sometimes
it was all but ephemeral, maybe only
an afternoon, but not less real for that.
They stay in my mind, these beautiful people,
or anyway beautiful people to me, of which
there are so many. You, and you, and you,
whom I had the fortune to meet, or maybe
missed. Love, love, love, it was the
core of my life, from which, of course, comes
the word for the heart. And, oh, have I mentioned
that some of them were men and some were women
and some—now carry my revelation with you—
were trees. Or places. Or music flying above
the names of their makers. Or clouds, or the sun
which was the first, and the best, the most
loyal for certain, who looked so faithfully into
my eyes, every morning. So I imagine
such love of the world—its fervency, its shining, its
innocence and hunger to give of itself—I imagine
this is how it began.

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

Don’t Hesitate

If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy,
don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty
of lives and whole towns destroyed or about
to be. We are not wise, and not very often
kind. And much can never be redeemed.
Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this
is its way of fighting back, that sometimes
something happens better than all the riches
or power in the world. It could be anything,
but very likely you notice it in the instant
when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the
case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid
of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.

~ Mary Oliver

Elements 2012 by Drea
People and things are made up of so many different parts that it’s often hard to judge them from the outside.
Take time to get a cross section and see what they are really made of.
http://dreajensengallery.artistwebsites.com/featured/elements-2012-drea-jensen.html

Maker of All Things, Even Healings
by Mary Oliver

All night
under the pines
the fox
moves through the darkness
with a mouthful of teeth
and a reputation for death
which it deserves.
In the spicy
villages of the mice
he is famous,
his nose
in the grass
is like an earthquake,
his feet
on the path
is a message so absolute
that the mouse, hearing it,
makes himself
as small as he can
as he sits silent
or, trembling, goes on
hunting among the grasses
for the ripe seeds.
Maker of All Things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow-
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.