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✨ AVAILABLE NOW! ✨WHISPERS FROM HER DEATHBED:
A Posthumous Poetry Collection This collection of poems, bravely and vulnerably, chronicles Janavi's journey, -in beautiful, poignant phrases,- as she lived with a painful, chronic illness, that, inspired her to dive deep into her core. The book, edited by Catherine L. Schweig, features cover art by talented Illustrator Landis Blair, was released on June 3rd, (Janavi's birthday), with Golden Dragonfly Press.. All proceeds from the books go toward the Janavi Held Endowed Poetry and Art Grant established in her memory. AVAILABLE NOW! AMAZON 
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Praise for Whispers from Her Deathbed
“In Whispers from Her Deathbed, Janavi Held invites us to meet our own mortality as she meets hers. ‘I embody what no one wants to know,’ she writes, yet some of us hunger for these poems that blossom out of that ‘inner flower garden’ at the boundary of life and death. These are courageous poems, poems that listen, poems that question, poems that beg for, and deliver, mercy.”
—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of Hush and Naked for Tea
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“Janavi Held’s final yet eternal mystic words spoken through Whispers From Her Deathbed, transform the reader to wind tracing the shapes of soft trees, to flowing and undammed holy river—her namesake: ‘And the river restless, running, shocking cold to tree roots who rest and reach to her…’ It’s as though she reaches for us from the other worlds, waking us from the mundane existence of living on earth, into actual LIFE. From the physical painful prison of her dying body, her transcendent spirit sings the ancient wisdom of ‘the turning stars… the geometry of flowers, the creativity of earth’s design, the personalism of trees, and the humility of grass growing like freedom.’ She begs those of us who hear her to continue to find beauty in the struggle of human striving, to search for light in the seemingly endless darkness, to know that ‘love owns eternity and nothing more,’ and to know that our Sister is finally Home. |
It’s as though she reaches for us from the other worlds, waking us from the mundane existence of living on earth, into actual LIFE.” |
‘She is a river full of mercy and feminine waves… she cannot be contained by dams. In her, sacred dancing myth and true stories collide. Bravery lives in her waters, and kindness washes up on her pale shores.’ Janavi is held only by the Infinite now. In these poems, she sends ‘a message through the chains of time and space... I am speaking freedom/ I am inside freedom/ my life sits inside the palm of the universe… If I have loved beyond reason, will you still remember my name?’”
- Kai Coggin, poet laureate of hot Springs, Arkansas
author of Mining for Stardust, Incandescent, and Wingspan
- Kai Coggin, poet laureate of hot Springs, Arkansas
author of Mining for Stardust, Incandescent, and Wingspan
“’Endless todays, endless todays.’ How richly giving these words are! We experience today as having a finite beginning, middle and end, but strung together, you end up with a duration unfathomable in its breadth and depth. Or, was Janavi pointing to the eternity in one day, in each moment in time—the eternal as our inheritance, our birthright, the beacon of our conscious journey through life?
Of the many gifts that this book offers, I would like to highlight this: the stark brilliance with which Janavi held in her fiercely brave, fragile soul the contradictions and paradoxes of life and living, and the healing to be found in exploring doubt and wonder, suffering and transcendence, the material and the divine. With each poem, I feel I am holding Janavi's hand as she whispers to me a story that is deeply personal, and sublimely universal. Janavi lived her shortened life with her eyes wide open, soul on fire, and heart ever-expanding. It is our infinite fortune that she left us with a masterful blueprint for how we might do the same.”
-Tammy Stone Takahashi, author of Yoga Healing Love
“’Endless todays, endless todays.’ How richly giving these words are! We experience today as having a finite beginning, middle and end, but strung together, you end up with a duration unfathomable in its breadth and depth. Or, was Janavi pointing to the eternity in one day, in each moment in time—the eternal as our inheritance, our birthright, the beacon of our conscious journey through life?
Of the many gifts that this book offers, I would like to highlight this: the stark brilliance with which Janavi held in her fiercely brave, fragile soul the contradictions and paradoxes of life and living, and the healing to be found in exploring doubt and wonder, suffering and transcendence, the material and the divine. With each poem, I feel I am holding Janavi's hand as she whispers to me a story that is deeply personal, and sublimely universal. Janavi lived her shortened life with her eyes wide open, soul on fire, and heart ever-expanding. It is our infinite fortune that she left us with a masterful blueprint for how we might do the same.”
-Tammy Stone Takahashi, author of Yoga Healing Love
Letters to My Oldest Friend
Janavi Held wrote poetry since her childhood. Selections of her voluminous literary oeuvre representing the last 15 years of her life appear in Whispers from Her Deathbed. (Golden Dragonfly Press, June 3, 2022). Janavi's first book, Letters to My Oldest Friend: A Book of Poetry and Photography, was published in 2017 by Krishna West Inc.
Writing devotional poetry is a way of stepping back from the mind and allowing the heart to speak." Janavi's first poetry book, Letters to My Oldest Friend was published in 2017 by Krishna West Press. (Book trailer below) Shortly after publishing her first book, two of Janavi’s poems were shortlisted for the prestigious Hamilton House International Poetry Prize awarded by the University Centre Grimsby. As such, she became one of 25 writers—out of thousands—whose poems appeared in the annual Hammond House poetry anthology, appropriately titled Eternal. |
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"Letters to My Oldest Friend" is a classic spiritual journey, starting with the anguish of her losses - of mobility, of mind (she says, but the poem belies it), "wrapped in a blanket of thorns”, then to the longing for the spirit, the Friend, and finally a joyous reunion with spirit through nature. I read these poems almost with tears. I also thought of how poems like these—especially the opening ones—could create compassion in the reader for all the sick and disabled from whom we tend to avert our gaze. Janavi Held's language is beautiful and evocative, as when she writes: 'remembering is a lost art/in the mind of these misshapen times.' The book is, quite simply, a gem."
Nina Klippel
Author,"Tricks of The Light and Other Poems", 2010
Editor, The Village Zendo Bulletin
Time I am by Janavi Held"The collection is a refection on Time. It speaks of communing, or speaking with God about how--as life passes, as time passes--the things that pull me away from divinity, from my spiritual path, fall away, becoming less relevant, as the vision of all living things as a family of souls gradually becomes more vivid in my heart. That eternal family of souls that will live after the body dies. This is the vision I wish to strive for in my poetry, and in my life.
The title comes from a verse in India's classic spiritual text, the Bhagavad Gita, or Song of God. After going back to school and graduating in 2009, I was enjoying the freedom of writing without deadlines, and all these poems, reflecting on time, just poured out of me. The collection is divided into three sections: time and how it relates to nature, how time influences our bodies and our social circumstances, and the perception of time and how it influences our spiritual evolution. The collection also includes photographs the island of Kauai and from Santa Fe, New Mexico." |
When I write poetry, I participate in a process of deeply listening to the voice we think of as intuition..." |
"This slide show is a series of photos I took while standing amongst a flock of seagulls on a misty beach in southern California. I used this poem, titled "When", after I put the video together, because the motions of the birds felt, to me, like the motion and flow of the poem."
~Janavi~
~Janavi~
Interview with Janavi
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The following interview with Janavi Held was conducted shortly after the release of her poetry book in 2017, for a featured artist profile at Krishna West:
I started writing poetry in my early teens. In high school I had a teacher who was very fond of Bob Dylan. He carried around a notebook of his songs and whenever a student had a problem his solution was to find a song that he felt addressed the problem. He was a bit eccentric, but his heart was in the right place. Most of the students didn’t even know who Bob Dylan was, but I appreciated the idea that poetry was a means of gaining self-understanding, inspiration and comfort. |
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,My parents were publishers so, as a child I was surrounded by publishers and authors. My mother was a writer and also wrote poetry later in her life. She frequently gave me gifts of poetry books; Rumi and Pablo Neruda were favorites of hers.
I went back to school in 2005 and studied photography, poetry and media studies. Going back to school really pushed me to hone my skills as a writer and I found that this gave me greater freedom of expression, as I never really studied the craft of poetry. There is a lot to explore in the realm of poetry and as I was exposed to many different styles of writing I found that my own poetic voice became clearer as did the sense of direction I wanted to go in terms of writing. I Remember submitting my senior study at the end of my last semester at Goddard College and what a great sense of relief I felt at having finished school and on that day a very long poem spilled out of my pen; it was five pages long and it was a spiritually oriented poem, I knew then why I had gone through school and learned all that I had learned. Now, I felt, was time to engage my craft as a spiritual service and as a spiritual practice.
The simple answer is: everything. It is the way in which I digest my life experience, the way I gain deeper understanding of myself, situations I encounter and my relationship with God and other souls, the way in which I cope with life’s troubles and triumphs.
Devotional poetry is a prayer, a conversation with God, it can be descriptive of God and His activities, and His devotees. It can express a longing for communion with God, but it is also a way of observing the world, as God’s creation, and unfolding that observation back out into the world in the form of a poetic offering. Yet, I feel that all poetry that asks or contemplates the big questions, like why are we here? What is death? Etc., poems expressing existential angst certainly are what I think of as spiritual poetry.
I went back to school in 2005 and studied photography, poetry and media studies. Going back to school really pushed me to hone my skills as a writer and I found that this gave me greater freedom of expression, as I never really studied the craft of poetry. There is a lot to explore in the realm of poetry and as I was exposed to many different styles of writing I found that my own poetic voice became clearer as did the sense of direction I wanted to go in terms of writing. I Remember submitting my senior study at the end of my last semester at Goddard College and what a great sense of relief I felt at having finished school and on that day a very long poem spilled out of my pen; it was five pages long and it was a spiritually oriented poem, I knew then why I had gone through school and learned all that I had learned. Now, I felt, was time to engage my craft as a spiritual service and as a spiritual practice.
- What inspires you to write poetry?
The simple answer is: everything. It is the way in which I digest my life experience, the way I gain deeper understanding of myself, situations I encounter and my relationship with God and other souls, the way in which I cope with life’s troubles and triumphs.
- What does devotional poetry mean to you and how does it differ from other types of poetry?
Devotional poetry is a prayer, a conversation with God, it can be descriptive of God and His activities, and His devotees. It can express a longing for communion with God, but it is also a way of observing the world, as God’s creation, and unfolding that observation back out into the world in the form of a poetic offering. Yet, I feel that all poetry that asks or contemplates the big questions, like why are we here? What is death? Etc., poems expressing existential angst certainly are what I think of as spiritual poetry.
In the Bhakti tradition I am a part of, there is long history of poetry as prayer." |
What is the importance of poetry in devotional life?
In our Bhakti tradition there is long history of poetry as prayer. Bhaktivinoda Thakur was a prolific writer of devotional poetry; our own Srila Prahbupada wrote extraordinary poetry as well. Some of the earliest recorded poems are of a devotional nature from the Rig Veda, to poems found carved on tablets from ancient Egypt. So, there has always been this connection between poetry and prayer and I think it’s safe to say that every religious tradition has their devotional poets. Writing devotional poetry is a way of stepping back from the mind and allowing the heart to speak; it is an active prayer where the mind and intellect are in engaged as the heart searches for a language to express it’s connection to divinity or the battle one encounters in separation from God. t is a process of deeply listening to the voice we think of as intuition, which is coming from the soul, from God. |
- Please describe one of your most powerful spiritual experiences with poetry or spiritual realizations regarding poetry.
One night, during a time of utter despair and hopelessness, I was lying in bed and I felt a deep longing for the security and comfort of God’s love. I felt a prayer rise into my heart. I picked up the paper and pen that I keep by my bed and scribbled something down. In the morning I discovered a poem, which expressed a deep sense of surrender to the shelter and love that can only exist between the soul and God. I read that poem everyday, because it reminds me that I have touched that relationship and it motivates me to keep seeking that place within myself from which that poem arouse.
- Can you share any advice with us regarding poetry and spiritual life?
Whether one is reading poetry or writing poetry; listening is the most important thing: listening to the voice of the heart, the voice of God which stirs in intuition and our intelligence, listening to other souls express their devotional sentiments, watching and listening to the world of nature as God’s creation. All these acts can draw us closer to the realization of our spiritual identity.
When I was in school I attended a study group with a wonderful group of students. Our advisor was an artist and writer. One of the students was talking about how to begin writing, where to begin. She was feeling blocked and frustrated. The teacher said, “This is what you do.” She then took a notebook out of her bag and a pen. She put them on the table we were all sitting around and put the pen to the paper and looked up and said, “This is what you do.” It sounds simplistic, but so many times when I’ve been blocked this is what I do; even if I write, “I have nothing to write,” eventually something coherent comes out. Other than this, prayer to the creator for help with your creations is always good advice.
Other Books that feature Janavi's poetry include:
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Goddess: When She Rules.,
(Golden Dragonfly Press, 2018) |
Eternal: Award Wining Poetry ,
(Hammond House Publishing, 2017) |
Janavi published the following 20 poems in the Journey of the Heart Poetry Project.: (Click on titles to read)
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I've Found in You (December 9, 2018)
I am Still Here (June 4, 2018) Sometimes (December 13, 2017) Luxuries (August 4, 2017) My Sisters (July 25, 2017) Earth Chant (May 8, 2017) Negotiations (April 27, 2017) Spring (March 18, 2017) Motion (March 5, 2017) Exterminated Rock (March 23, 2017) |
Emergence (January 31, 2017)
Forefit (January 13, 2017) Dark Waters (January 4, 2017) Storming (December 23, 2016) Two Poems for Autumn (December 20, 2016) When (December 11, 2016) Sometimes (December 3, 2016) Oxygen (November 25, 2016) My Island (November 12, 2016) The Rocks (November 6, 2016) |
The Janavi Held Endowed Poetry and Art Grant
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This is a bi-annual micro-grant created in Janavi Held's memory, and gifted to women whose artistic or poetic expressions are an integral part of who they are. The grant is specifically intended to offer support to women who could use the gift in a manner that would facilitate further expression of their creative spirit. It is a heartfelt gift from Janavi Held and Catherine Schweig (Founder of the Journey of The Heart Poetry Project), meant to encourage and support a sister in need. If you are interested in applying, click here. The next grants will be awarded in 2022, as per the selection of the trust's board members. |
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