meet the
poet
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME —
hey, friends. my name's jess and The Sweet Slow is my Heart come to life in this big world.
this is where i get to bring my love and gift of the word together with my desire to bring more LOVE and connection to the people i cross paths with.
what better way than to open my table to all of you, sharing verse directly from the Mystery, through my fingers, to the ink pressed into the handmade cotton paper you'll take home with you when we're finished? this is timeless work, and i'm honored to share it with you.
( I am a )
poet, intuitive, perpsective-shifter, miracle-minded lover.
i am in love with the world. it's true. i know, it can be a strange and ugly place, but i also know it to be a wonderful, beauty-filled place, with trees and hand-holding, and baby-smiles, and rainbows at December funerals, and the most amazing thing is that .. simultaneously.. it's all happening at once. all the time. the grief, the joy, the hope, the hurt, the wreckage and the wilderness and the wild, wild wish-making, the overwhelming gratitude and the frightening thing that is Time, doing the things that Time does, whether we're slowing down to enjoy where we are or not.
what i believe.. is that poetry can show us the simple nature of life, while revealing to us the complexities that make being here so worthwhile.
my intention, at your event, across the table from one another, is that in that moment, i'll glimpse the Divine in you, the first vision or phrase will come in the middle of our short exchange, and i'll write magick through my typewriter in the form of words, touching the shape of your heart and reminding you of how incredibly purposeful and significant your fingerprint is on this life.
SEE THE ORDINARY WITH EXTRAORDINARY PERCEPTION
My Story
The Experience
Creative Process
a girl had big (& wordy) dreams.
it all started with memorizing nursery rhymes, learning the routine bedtime stories line for line, and insisting on a re-read when the adults skipped pages! from there, i wrote songs (& made my cousins perform them at family gatherings), wrote scripts for terrible plays, challenged myself to write the longest stories in my second-grade class (one in particular about a bunny), wrote all of my observations into poetry, and proceeded to follow the path that poetry laid out for me, no matter how badly my parents longed for decisions that made sense to them (love you, mom and dad). poetry's landed me awards, friendships, connections, a magical way of being in relationship with the world; it's brought me love, it's brought me survival, and it's brought me peace.
once upon a time
My Story
The Experience
Creative Process
let me write you a poem.
it all starts with some curiosity...what is that old, familiar clicking sound and what on earth is this woman doing behind this archaic (but still: very curious) piece of turquoise machinery?
why, i'm writing love notes to you, friend.
but really: all are invited to my table, wherever i am. at a wedding, a party, a historical location, a secret spot in the woods, on the street of my hometown. every human with a beating heart is welcome.
i'll ask some questions, spark conversation,
and within 5-10 minutes, you'll receive a newly inked, completely original-to-you poem in the shape of your heart.
welcome to the table
My Story
The Experience
Creative Process
there's a magick to this.
most of the time, guests don't necessarily know what they want their poems to be about, which is why it's so important to invite those who come to the table into gentle, curious conversation. i have a way of asking the right questions, listening to what isn't being spoken, and tuning into the feeling underneath the words.
from there, i'm gifted with an image, a phrase, or a word and i begin writing. as long as i trust that first spark, the poem almost writes itself through me.
there's a reason i call this: taking Divine dictation. that's what it feels like!
i become entirely present with whomever is in front of me and open myself up to what poetry wants to say through me.
from heart to hand,
