Journey of the Heart: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry by Women Release Date!

Journey of The Heart: An Anthology of Spiritual Poetry by Women, edited by Catherine Ghosh and to be published this summer by Balboa Press, a division of Hay House, has woven together the voices of over 70 women of diverse ethnicities, nationalities and traditions. In meditative and insightful poems they offer us revealing glimpses of their sensitive souls engaged in meaningful dialogue with the world, others, themselves and divinity.

This spiritual poetry draws from the timeless wisdom, power and beauty residing deeply within the hearts of all women. Emerging within archetypal themes that deliver valuable messages, the inspiring and uninhibited chorus of voices beckons us to journey along with them into the wild, mysterious and uncharted territory of a woman’s heart.

This book emerged from an online project created by Catherine Ghosh, dedicated to encouraging and facilitating women to freely share their hearts, as they learned to express themselves through poetry. It is dedicated to the spirit of really listening to, and honoring, all women’s voices.

Journey of the Heart

So thrilled to announce the arrival of this beautiful anthology of women's spiritual poetry, of which I am proud and honored to be a part of, along with a group of amazing and beautifully talented women from all over the world! Official release date: August 10th

Below is the book trailer just released:

Om shanti shanti shanti,

Nirvani

Connectedness...

Good Morning!

       A few days ago I began a sadhana on the beach. I needed some inspiration not only for meditation but as a poetess as well. Each day for the next week I will spend an hour in the morning sitting on the beach meditating and contemplating. Of course I will have pencil and paper in hand to jot down any inspiring thoughts that should come my way. Yesterday after my return home this little piece of brevity came to me. 

  

      While meditating, I became aware of how the waves rolling up on the shore and then back out to sea 

sounded much like our breath while inhaling and exhaling. As I sat with my eyes closed noticing how my breath rolled back and forth in time with the waves, I also became acutely aware of the silence in between each crash of wave. For just a hair's breath did it occur and yet I was drawn to it. At the onset of meditation I was keenly aware of not only the waves but the sounds of laughter from nearby children playing in the water, an airplane preparing for departure off in the distance and the sound of birds. At first these sounds seemed separate and distinct, but after a while it was as if they were happening inside me, or me inside them. As if I had become one with the sound and I was no longer just me, but I was the wave, the children.

     “Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but must always participate in the swell of the ocean, so we can never experience life by ourselves, but must always share the experience of life that takes place all around us.” ~ Albert Schweitzer

 This experience showed me, on a deeper level, how truly connected we are with everything around us.

Jai Maa,
Nirvani

Shiva's Wild Woman

(artwork: Roger Williamson Art)

Shiva's Wild Woman

I am femininity embodied,

Deity made flesh, perfection

Embedded in flaw.

Un-submissive feminist,

Freedom-fighting,

Barefoot mama on a mission

To strengthen the sisterhood of souls.

The androgynous love, pouring

From my cosmic yoni

Paints the world in supernatural perceptions.

To one I am femme fatale,

Dangerously sacrilegious, ego-stripping

Mata Hari-esque.

To another, the primordial paradox,

The unsolvable puzzle. 

To my Self, the constant

Creator and destroyer

Dancing my way 

Through the universe.

Some call me 

Shiva's wild woman.

Nirvani Teasley, 2013

http://thecosmicpoet.com/

The Wild Heart

The Wild Heart

Effeminate one,

Equivocate no more.

Stop undermining

Your purpose.

That pretentious ego bitch

Has been stealing

Your identity.

De-domesticize the

Feline, sitting perched

And pretty, kept in

Ornate patriarchal cages.

You hold the key

Against your

Counterfeit heart.

Dig a little deeper.

The feral roots are there.

A woman's liberation

Is not found in deprivation.

The wild heart

Knows no boundaries.

Nirvani Teasley, 2013

The Belly Dance

Dance of Ecstasy

Body in motion

Transcends time.

This wild woman syndrome

Takes hold

And sheds away

Pious parameters.

Sanctimoniousness

Falls down

Around my swaying figure

Like the shedding

Of snake skin.

I shake it off with

Gyrating hips

And quivering breasts.

Jangling of golden coin

At waist, vibrates

To the frequency

Of the Universe.

Spirit recognizes

The uncivilized call

Of the feminine.

Unconscious prakriti,

The primal force

Comes out

To play.

Animating its unrefined,

Yet refined drama

Through my spine,

Awakening

What lay dormant

At the base.

The dance

Of ecstasy

Begins.

~Nirvani Teasley

   

  About a month ago I took up belly dancing. I have always loved to dance and have enjoyed watching other women belly dance...It is quite mesmerizing. So I decided I would give it a try. I started with the Goddess Belly Dance workout by Dolphina (you can find her via google). I do it every day for 50 minutes. It is an amazing cardio workout, and I have also been using her Introduction to Belly Dance dvd, which has helped me immensely in learning  the various moves. I cannot express enough how incredibly liberating belly dancing makes me feel. I feel more empowered as a woman, and sexier too! Since starting, the dance has inspired my muse in poetry. It is hard to express how I feel while dancing...poetry is my chosen way of expressing something I feel deeply about in my soul. Dancing is just another way that the human spirit expresses itself in nature. It is a way that every woman can connect with her shakti...Dancing makes me feel like a Goddess!

Jai Maa,

Nirvani

Tribute to Earth Day

Walk Naked

Walk naked

And feel the feathery

Green fingers

Of fresh Spring grass

Tickling between bare toes,

Hypersensitive from

The suffocation of

The culture of shoes

For too long.

Let them just breathe.

Reacquaint the

Unclad foot with

Mother Earth

Again.

Walk naked

In endless fields of

Lavender dreams.

Let the scent

Intoxicate, as the

Senses remember

What they'd

Forgotten.

Lie in copious pastures,

Burgeoning with

Nature's generosity.

Her efflorescence

Yearns to cradle

Soft, exposed flesh

Against her

Earthy breast.

Listen to

Her whispers

And come

Home.

Nirvani Teasley

.

Child's Play

Child's Play

Ascending into Heaven’s arms

Shadows bend and darkness never harms

The void, where nothingness is bliss

Dominate mind ceases to exist

Riding upon the primordial planes

Silence constrains and awareness reigns

Rebirth of the transcendent soul

No longer under ego’s control

Dissolving into supernal happiness

No sin to confess, no law to transgress

Comfort in this skin, nothing to adjust

Surrendering Self to absolute trust

Absorbing love in recesses of heart

The place where passion starts and will depart

Submit will, give entirety of existence away

Bliss is found in child’s play

Jennifer Adams Teasley ©2013

Seeker (ghazal)

Seeker (ghazal)

I seek night and day, for just a glimpse of that bliss,

To refresh my depleted soul, to end its weariness with that bliss.

I call near and far, with only echoes for my friends.

My spirit mellows, fatigued of unconsciousness of that bliss.

I shed tears, hollowed out spheres wanting to be filled with what?

It evades me, time and again, the insatiable kiss of that bliss.

I touched its flighty wings once and screamed ecstatic silence.

I fell delirious into its open arms and still I was dismissed by that bliss.

To have tasted of the rapture, but never keep is Jennifer's madness.

And in death, with only a whisper on lips of the awareness of that bliss.

Jennifer Adams Teasley©2013

The Cosmic Poet

Becoming

Becoming

Love is an ocean without bounds.

What river does not empty into this sea?

Despite obstacles barring the heart,

surrender comes ’round eventually.

The soul, like a river, flows

into the limitless ocean of bliss,

becomes one with the ocean

then Love becomes This.

Jennifer Adams Teasley

©2013

Habits

Habits

Karmic echoes 

spread wide like arms

on a limitless ocean,

fragments of lives

lived, another time

other places,

 firmly embossed on

souls in need of

catharsis, to

remain, till

these bents

no longer

bind 

Jennifer Adams Teasley 

©2013

    I've been thinking a great deal lately about habist, how they become so ingrained in us like deep roots taking hold so firmly they become entrenched and almost immovable. I have many of those kinds of habits...from outward daily routines to deepest thought processes. I realize that the older I get the more difficult it is to break habits, that bind me down like lead weights, making me feel almost helpless to overcome them. It has only been through very intense consistent sadhana that I can even begin to touch them. Japa mantra has a cleansing effect like nothing else, but I still struggle to make chanting a habit, because of the habit of not being consistent...It can be quite frustrating. I do understand though, that my soul is forever trying to find its way back to its Source and so I continue the uphill battle, and though it hurts, the pain constantly brings more awareness.

Jai Maa,

Nirvani

My Kismet

John William Waterhouse

My Kismet

‘Oh what webs we weave’

Iconic words of yesteryear come to mind

Only to realize that it is I who have been deceived

Unwittingly, self-contriving my own destiny

Left me spinning in a loop of unending pain

Mixed with joy and a tad bit of bliss

A karmic cocktail imprinted on my consciousness

The causatum of thought and action

Runs deeper than my mere puny grasping intelligence

My kismet ascertained

Or so it would seem, until my soul whispered to me

‘Find your true Self and get off this train

Of perpetual death and rebirth

For you are but a drop in the ocean of Source’

And so began my journey of Self-Realization

Jennifer Adams Teasley ©2012

Mother Moon...

Luis Ricardo Falero, Moon Nymph

Mother Moon


Oh Mother Moon, who guides this inner world,
you are my secret dream, my hidden inmost need,
obscured by the outer facade
that keeps me shroud in deception. 
You are the gatekeeper
of the nethermost regions of my soul.

Internal sanctums of consciousness,
Oh Luna, are your garden for my inner child. 
Vulnerable, exposed, 
when your luminous light shines upon me. 
I am naked,
conflicted with my exoteric nature. 

Oh Selene, beautiful winged goddess!
You ride upon the intuitive waters
of my psyche,
expanding my resilience on golden wing,
clipped, I  am mercurial, 
quicksilver, changing from moment to moment.

Sentimental fool, you take me for,
immersing me in a pool of nostalgia
only to rebirth the past,
again and again.
You slumber in the dark abyss
of my imagination, laying in wait
to reveal my aesthetic beauty. 

Mother Moon, arcane enchantress,
animating the rhythmic 
ebb and flow of all life,
waxing maiden, waning crone,
wandering through my clandestine realms,
bending me to my knees, your lesson
in wholeness unravels me.
You speak of 'new beginnings', forcing 
me to bury old wounds in the
graveyard of my heart, where you stand
as guardian of my authentic Self.


Jennifer Adams Teasley © 2012

The Cosmic Poet

    I have become an avid poet and will be sharing some of my works on this blog, but if you want to follow my poetry blog I would be happy to have you:) For a long time I have struggled with expressing myself to the outside world. It is not that I am not open to others, per say, more that my outer expression does a poor job of relating my inmost feelings. Poetry has opened up a whole new world for me. Most all of my poetry expresses some aspect of myself, such as the poem above. My astrological birthchart has indicated my difficulty of reconciling my inner and outer worlds together. I think most see me as one thing on the outside surface, but confuse that with what I really am deep inside. I am so thankful to have discovered this new found love of the written word in the form of poetry. I will also be trying my hand at some prose as well:)
     I greatly appreciate those who take the time to read my words. Most of us have a deep need to share ourselves with the others in some form or another. To make a difference in someone's life. There are so many ways to express ourselves, the arts is just one way. I think the greatest  is when we serves others, with no ulterior motive, just the simple joy of giving. This is what Karma yoga is all about.
     I hope that through my poetry I may be able to touch some heart, as other's poetry has touched mine. This poem above is part of a series of astrological poems I am creating. Astrology is another huge passion of mine. I am studying it and hope to become at least an amateur astrologer one day. As of yet, I have only studied Western astrology, but would love to learn Vedic (jyotish) astrology as well. I have enjoyed mingling astrology with poetry:)


Jai Maa,
Nirvani

Kahlil Gibran...On Children

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1871

On Children
Kahlil Gibran


Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.


You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.


You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer’s hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Kahlil Gibran is one of my favorite writers and mystic poets of all time. This piece speaks volumes of pure wisdom. We can learn so much from our children, strive to be more childlike ourselves, but as Gibran so eloquently states we should seek not to make them just like us, for there souls do not belong to us. 

Om Shanti,

Nirvani

Music Moves Me

Music moves me,
lifts my soul up out of some
hidden place
and gives it command.

 An austere composer, 
who intends to master me.
It brings me to my knees
and raises me to sovereign heights.

My soul plays me 
like a perfectly tuned violin,
The euphonious rhythm 
of my heart beating out of my chest.

My own true Self,
comes out to dance, the Divine Dance.
I reach symphonic bliss 
when the music moves me. 


© Jennifer Adams Teasley
http://thecosmicpoet.com/


   

Soul Awakened

Soul Awakened

I am asleep, my mind dormant 

No kindling for spark

Wandering about

In lackadaisical slumber

I chance a walk in nature

The cure all for monotony 

I hear a quaint melody

A Robin's resplendent call? 

My step quickens, mind rouses

A crisp feel in the air,

Revitalizing my constitution

Dulled senses heighten

And as my soul begins to stir

Like a thousand tiny petals

Caressing me from the inside,

I am awakened!

Jennifer Adams Teasley

(http://thecosmicpoet.com/)

I AM a Poet!

   

      When I was a girl of about 12 years old I had a passionate love of  poetry. I read as much as I could get my hands on. I had a little red folder where I kept my own precious prose. I daydreamed of becoming a great poet one day. Those dreams have long since left me, and sadly I misplaced that little red folder some time back. One thing I have never lost though is my love of poetry. Next to music, poetry moves me in ways that words cannot describe.
      Recently, and after great trepidation, I finally picked up my pen and tried my hand at prose once again. As Robert Frost put it, "A poem begins with a lump in the throat." How true that is! To my surprise, I began to write and found the words flowing quite easily onto the paper. Yes my words may be a bit purplely, but they express what is in my heart. I have always felt that my outer veneer never quite reflected my inner world. Poetry has a way of conveying what my soul longs to say.
      On my new blog A Thousand Petal Lotus I generally share the poetic works of others that I enjoy, but recently I have posted some of my own work. Though in no way a masterpiece, I believe I have revived my greatest passion from days gone by. I  AM a poet:) I hope that you will take the time to ingest my prose. Walt Whitman put it perfectly, "To have great poets there must be great audiences too."


Om Shanti,
Nirvani

The Womb of the Universe

My Mother,

Immeasurable,

Auspicious doorway,

Clothed in space,

Dressed in emptiness

Adorned only by vastness

The naked moment,

Birthing in every second renewed and continual

You create our worlds, for pleasure, play, and our learning

You measure all worlds, you measure us into existence

You birth all worlds, you birth us

You nurse all worlds, you nurse us

You grow all worlds, you grow us

You dissolve all worlds, you are the end of us as we know ourselves

You mature all worlds, you are our maturing

You are our supporter, mother of the universe

Cause of bliss,

Golden

Destroyer of misery and poverty,

Bestower of eloquence, the power of speech

The virtuous bestower of magnificent desires

The rider of time, the dissolver of time, the creator of time

Slayer, mother, and nurse

Servant and sovereign 

Authority and student

Worshipped and the worshipper

 You live in the act in between

The play, player, played, and the playing

The magic of nothing within the loving field of everything

The power of Women

Supreme and subservient

Dancing life into being

Serving and being served

The power that is unstoppable

Drunk on bliss

Wielding the cleaver that separates false from true

Untouched, unattached, by passion, yet the heart of passion itself

The red flow, death of the ego

Creator of fear, laughing loudly at its play

The luminous beauty of the eyes that see so clearly

Rolling with love piercing with gratitude

Flashing

Yet demure, deep, and enticing

In the softness of the lotus heart 

Adorned with rubies glowing

Your form is the night of time

Eternal night, eternal rest

A bed where all identities come to dissipate

You are the authentic sound of Being

Creation resounding resonating

Rumbling through awareness

The hum in the back of our thoughts

The hum in the background of our feelings

The hum as our bodies unite

Dominate in bed

Tiger footed in movement

Sure and agile

Graceful and serene

Hair wild and free flowing in all directions

You ride creation into being

As the power of time

You devour us, your children

As the power of time

You stand astride, resplendent upon the corpse of this universe

When we are born you are there

When we die you are there also

Eternally the same in the intensity of being

All our acts, all our fruits, come back to you Mother

Everything returns back to you

It is only our arrogance that stops us seeing the truth as it is

All that is limited fears that beyond its limits

You as the creator of time, stand beyond time, beyond limits

One who is beyond all fear can protect us all from fear

As long as we identify with anything there is fear

This is why you are clothed in space

The dissolving of all fear into freedom

Based on the 108 Names of Kali

(Womb Wisdom: Padma and Anaiya Aon Prakasha)

New Blog...Check it out!

A Thousand Petal Lotus

Check out my new blog! I will be sharing poetry, writings, art and photography that move and inspire me!

Jai Maa!

Nirvani

I Am Here......

I Am Here

Alone I roamed by the ocean's shore,
And watched
     The wrestling waves in brawling roar--
Bounding with Thine own restless life.
I saw Thee in Thy angry mood, tossing and foaming
Until the very vastness of Thy wrath made me shiver
And turn away in dread from so much violence and strife.
And then I walked inland.
     A kindly, spreading, sentinel tree
Waved friendly arms to comfort me--
Consoling me with gentler look sublime,
Its leaves and branches swayed in tender lullaby-rhyme,
Conveying a message that I knew was Thine.
Above me, high
     I saw the gaugeless, mystic sky;
And, childlike, in dim valleys I sought to pry out
Thy secrets, and to play with Thee.
In vain, alas, did I seek Thee hiding there,
Cloud-robed, foam-sprayed, leaf-garlanded--
Too elusive for mortal eyes to see or ears to hear.
And yet,
     I knew that Thou wert always near,
As if playing hide-and-seek with me,
Receding each time when I almost touched Thee.
I groped for Thee in the maddeningly complex folds
Of dark ignorance--as old as time itself is old.
At last--
     I ceased my search, almost in despair:
What hope had I of finding Thee,
Thou Royal, Sly Eluder!
Thou art, I know, everywhere--
Yet Thou seemest nowhere: lost in unplumbed space,
Where none may clasp Thee or behold Thy face!
Yes, despairing,
     I ceased my fruitless search,
Turned huffily away from Thee:
My ploy was unsuccessful!
Still, still no answer from the wrathful sea,
And only whispers from the friendly tree;
Naught but silence from the limitless blue sky--
Silence from valleys low and mountains high!
Like a hurt child, within the depths of me
I hid and sulked--no longer seeking Thee.
And then, lo! suddenly:
     Unheralded, an Unseen Hand
Snatched from my eyes that all-black band
Which had blinded me so long with fold on fold.
No longer weary, but filled with strength untold,
I stood, and gazed again:
A laughing sea instead of wrathful roars!
A gay, glad world with mystically opening doors!
With only mists of dreams between,
Someone beside me stood unseen--
And whispered to me, calm and clear:
"Hello, playmate! I am here!"

Paramahansa Yogananda Whispers from Eternity


Jai Mata Di,
Nirvani

Is friendship the weaving of the red strings of two hearts?
Is it the blending of two minds into a spacious one-mind?
Is it the spouting of love founts together--
To strengthen the rush of love on droughty souls?
Is it the one rose grown 'twixt twin mind-branchlets
Of one compassionate stem?
Is it the one thinking in two bodies?
Or, is it like two strong stallions,
Disparate in color and mien,
Pulling the chariot of life together
To the single goal with one mind sight?
Is friendship founded on equalities or inequalities?
Is it built on diverse stones of differences?
Is friendship the unthinkingly agreeing,
The hand in hand, blind walking of two souls,
Foolishly rejoicing in their united folly,
Falling at last into a pit of disillusionment?

Friendship is noble, fruitful, holy--
When two separate souls march in difference
Yet in harmony, agreeing and disagreeing,
Glowingly improving diversely,
With one common longing to find solace in true pleasure.
When ne'er the lover seeks
Self-comfort at cost of the one beloved,
Then, in that garden of selflessness
Fragrant friendship is a hybrid, born of two souls,
The blended fragrance of two unlike flowers
Blown together in love's caressing breeze.
Friendship is born from the very core
Of secret, inexplicable likings.

Friendship is the fountain of true feelings.
Friendship grows in both likeness and difference.
Friendship sleeps or dies in familiarity,
And decays in lusts of narrow-eyed selves.
Friendship grows tall and sturdy
In soil of oneness in body, mind, and soul.
Demands, deceptions, sordid sense of possession,
Courtesy's lack, narrow self-love, suspicion,
These are cankers which eat at the heart of friendship.
Ah, friendship! Flowering, heaven-born plant!
Nurtured art thou in the soil of measureless love,
In the seeking of soul-progress together
By two who would smooth the way each for the other.
And thou art watered by attentions of affection
And the tender dews of inner and outer sweetness
Of the inmost, selfless heart's devotion.
Ah, friendship! Where thy soul-born flowers fall--
There, on that sacred shrine of fragrance,
The Friend of all friends craves to come and remain!

Paramhansa Yoganda

Om Shanti,

Nirvani