A Book of devotional poetry with black & white photography by Janavi Held
Video with spoken poetry below Time Unhinged Dreamt of exterminated images, and forgotten doubts, of unhinged time with the hollow of silent bones thundering in the wake of restless flowers. Blinded by a vigilant morning I enter the mists of loneliness seeking laughter and daydreams (to counter the emptiness) too long for counting these…
Review of “Letters to My Oldest Friend: a book of poetry and photography by Janavi Held How many of us have had or taken the chance to dialogue with our soul, our maker, the deep slope of annihilation? Every poem and photograph in “Letters to My Oldest Friend” is such a dialogue. Inspired by her…
Divine Names Your divine Names wander into my words my open mouth drinking that temptation is utterly fed here sitting under another spring sky. We have been together for so long yet, during the cold, wet winter I forgot to be happy forgot the feeling of Your warm air on my skin and how Your…
Flooding Within the shadowy waters of illusion I built thick castle walls sunken deep in those hazy waters my heart froze and slept for eons. Awakened from this deep sleep of ignorance by a flood of Your liberating monsoon rain You’ve opened the sky in my heart and the walls of my fortress are a…
In her beautiful debut collection of poems, Janavi Held takes us on a journey of awakening, as she explores the ways in which her relationships with struggle, time, nature and beauty in this world, relate to her burgeoning relationship with the divine. From a restless “there are so many stories in my lost heart” to…
Like many God-inspired poets of India’s Bhakti or devotional past (Mirabai and Chandidas come easily to mind), Janavi Held–writer, photographer, cineaste, observer of small miracles—chronicles the arrhythmia of a heart in love with Divinity. Letters to My Oldest Friend is a revelation. In elegant, spare verse and contemplative visual imagery, she gently cautions that we…
"Motion" by Janavi Held
"Dark Waters" by Janavi Held
Letters to My Oldest Friend 