Life is made up of layers. Like a piece of fruit if we wish to taste the sweetness we must first peel away the outer layers of skin. I hope that these poems may help you shed your layers and bring you closer to the sweetness at the heart of your life.

SEA OF TRANQUILITY
Inside, a sea of deep tranquility
breathes a song of quiet stillness. 
Waves of joy lap daily
on the shores of life. The hum 
of an ancient drumbeat
dances our hearts alive.

There is a living thread 
that runs through all things.
We cannot see it
but we can feel it, the way
we might feel a song
                                                                                                                                                  pulling at our heart strings.
                                                                                                                                                  Perhaps in the deep night
                                                                                                                                                 you have woken breathless, wondering
                                                                                                                                                what echoes from long ago now whisper 
                                                                                                                                               their secrets to you.

                                                                                                                                              Tell me.
                                                                                                                                               Have you discovered yet what it is that 
                                                                                                                                               holds you in the quiet hours?

                                                                                                                                                 Do you know the extent of your own magnificence?

---

SHADOW DANCING
Listen to the music of your soul
and dance. Don’t drag your life around
as if it were a heavy burden.
Hold lightly the grief given to you
take it in your arms 
​and twirl and spin
across the dance floor. 

Make beautiful patterns
with the shadow light.
Smile into its eyes, bow and say

‘Thank you.
You have come to save me.’

---

FLYING
High above the clouds
something awakens in my heart.
A white hope; a dream,a belief! 
In this space where all possibilities
​dance endlessly before me
there is no weight of sadness
only the murmur of a song, my mind
long ago abandoned.

Soon the announcement will come
‘Prepare yourself for landing’
and my body will slip back
into its usual brace.
I will walk on firm land again
my longing tucked away, unseen. Until 
the next time I fly
away to foreign lands
and feel the white clouds
send their wild whispers
to live in my heart again.
©Jannietta

IT’S TIME
You will know when the time
for freedom has arrived by the
way your body sighs, heavy with longing.
Nourished by the life you have led, 
the guardian of the door known as love, 
announces your readiness to fly. Still 
leaving behind all that you have known 
​is no easy task; there is a period of mourning 
to be faced before the promise 
of a new day rises and you floatinto its welcome, realising 
that the struggle 
was always worthwhile.

THE GIFT

Life is a timeless gift.
The future cannot receive it,
Nor the past hold it,
Only Now unwraps the present.

---

LIVING THE DREAM
If I cannot live by the shores of stillness
then I must invite the shores of stillness 
to live in me.

If I cannot dwell where the ocean embraces the land
then I must invite the embrace of ocean to dwell in me.

If I cannot breathe by the tides of peace
then I must allow the tides of peace to breathe in me.

If I cannot make my home by the open sea 
then I must invite the open sea to make it’s home in me. 

If I cannot live the dream
then perhaps the dream can live me?
©Jannietta

---

REBIRTH
Kneel on the ground, place your hand upon
the rich earth of your birth, allow 
the story of your life, as it is to reach you. There is
no need for fabrication or alteration. No need
to upgrade, degrade or change the details in any way.
What you have made
​from the living of your days
is sufficient enough for the embrace of Love.

Forget what should have been or could have been.
There is no need to reach for another version of your life.
Step instead into the passion of your own living. 
The shape of your own humanity.  

Reach for the stars by all means but don’t forget
to dance on the earth.

The mystery of your rebirth has room for both.

​

---

WHY I LOVE THE DARKENING HOURS

​Dear moon, keeper of the mystery
kind face in the night sky
bringer of light to the darkness.

Partner to the stars, you 
who watches over the sleeping hours
See how I end my day wrapped in silent prayers, 
how I rest my head on this pillow of gratitude.

Guardian of the sleeping world, see how 
my sleep is bathed in kindness and joy. How 
peace prepares to settle in my dreams, how
all through the night,
a mighty love cradles me.