about me, jenna, personally

not everyone has the opportunity to be reviewed by someone whose opinions they deeply treasure.

I had such a pleasure in April 2018, two days after I turned 20. I received mail from a former teacher. I had previously sent him a collection of my personal writing that I had printed, cut out, and stapled together to make a series of little books. Their topics varied from gentle love poems to raw accounts of mental illness, bridging a gap between a blunt rage which teases at homicide and a melodic pseudo-prayer lullaby, a connection I doubt had ever even appeared before in nightmares.

“there is an appealing dichotomy in your work. it can be very tender in one moment and biting in the next. of course we all bring our own baggage to our interpretation, but I find this seeming contradiction compelling. this is one of the aspects of all literature (and art, really) that I find the most interesting. in a way, the creator and his or her audience create the art together. the way that I interpret your writing may not be what you intended, but when I read, I make it my own. In that way, we create together. I think this is the nature with all art and it's why artists are the inspirers of the world.”

— Matthew Davidson

letters of adoration, from me to you

  • an ode to every tenth person that I happen to meet

    you're the kind of person who makes me feel so romantic. you have such a fullness and a warmth to you. but I'm sure you must be very afraid of me. I am the kind of girl who loves to love, but seldom does. I am so lost when it comes to you. you make me so happy and also so afraid.

    I could barely even talk to you when I had the chance and now I don't see you at all. I wish with so much of me that you could feel for me what I feel for you. there is such a purity and a sincerity in the connection I feel towards you and it is so refreshing.

    I am almost astounded by your very existence. I am much too scared of my emotions, and to share them with you. I have developed a longing for your presence. and such a desire for your touch. not strictly in any wanton or harsh way, but in so much of an innocence that is not often recognized in me.

    I hope with all I am that you could look fondly at me. if only you'd look. I must sound so blindly infatuated. and I'm sure I must be. but I mean none of this to deter you, though I feel it all will. you have no reason to care for me and I should not expect you to. however there is such an overwhelmingly trepidatious hope in my heart that feels you might care. please, if you cannot bring yourself to care, do not intentionally hurt me. and please if you care, but not enough to love, let me have your slightest touch and you softest voice. if I am only to have it once I am sure to cherish it just as much as if it were a habitual experience. I am starting to sound crazed so I should stop writing.

  • it was never supposed to be a love note

    I promised myself that if you gave me another chance I wouldn’t waste it. but now it seems that I’ve done just that. I never could’ve guessed that I would’ve come to care so much for you. you remind me of springtime and of taking photos of moss and excitement. you’re like trying things for the first time… you feel to me like hardly being able to catch my breath. maybe I’m struggling to keep up with you because you keep running, racing away. can you tell me if you ever cared for me? could I have a hint? I’m having so much trouble figuring it out. I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore. it’s not that I don’t care any longer. you gave me the ability to have a crush on life again, the strength to care deeply and explore wildly. I remember the beginning… however, I guess if you never cared there never was anything with a beginning, or any part for that matter.

    you are so much more tender than I ever could have believed. who would have known that someone like you could even see someone like me! you are so intricate, like lace made by knowledgeable hands, with fingers that had planned such beauty. beauty in every facet of your being. so often it stirs something within me, I pause and wonder. I wonder how in this great big world I could meet you when I did. poor timing? perhaps, but then again, perhaps not. disappointingly, this great big world isn’t big enough for me anymore. it’s lost the capability of keeping me far from you, it can’t keep you from me in any way. particularly my mind is affected. visions of warmth and glow and sweetness and your beauty, they haunt me daily. how silly I was to think that I could put myself in your life and leave untouched, unscathed.

    I find you every day. in everything, I see you. I long to be near you in flesh. at the very least, could we merely speak to each other? how has this all happened? you never treated me like I was hollow glass, but now that’s all I feel myself to be. you called me beautiful. I think you were drunk. whether or not you cared or care for me, you must preserve yourself. I was so destructive in your life. and you have only treated me with kindness. I have so much more in words and in thoughts and feelings for you. instead of sharing further I will hope you’re able to read this. if it’s done, then it’s done. If it never was, I am lost.

  • July 18th, 2014 - 10:46 PM

    Walking down the road

    Travelling roof above my head

    We walked on

    His faith was never dead

    A vine soared for the sky

    It carved a cavern inside

    He screamed his last

    Fell beside me in bed

    And daddy was mad

    He was screaming

    He was tearing all my hopes down from the sky

    He was mad

    The son was beaming

    And I fell into the cracks left in my mind

  • Jan. 4th 2016 - 11:05 PM

    It's incredibly, terribly difficult

    not to think about this boy

    Could I call him a man? I don't know

    These thoughts excite my little heart

    They lift me, dancing, falling,

    crackling apart

    I am dreaming with eyes wide

    A chain of pearls caught, tugged

    Broke and dropped,

    spilling all over the quietly whispering floor

    It told me not to fear him,

    as they all rolled away from me

  • Feb. 23rd 2018 - 9:33 PM

    I wish to be held

    Cradled

    In an egg

    Not suffocated

    But like within a warm hand

    Covered and breathing

    I wish to be given care

    Not by hands

    But by gentle voices

    And warmth, heat

    Weight and warmth

    Chanting and humming

    Like rivers singing

    Make it to the other side

  • July 22nd, 2014 - 8:41 PM

    Please avoid the Symptoms of Coinciding Stress:

    The best feeling is hot blood, against the frigid and

    Tense, hollow casing of a potential mother;

    After she has muddled through the confusion of

    Stress versus life,

    After she has felt both her skin, and her heart, silently tear;

    After she has not truly slept a single night,

    After she has weakly

    Returned to prayer,

    After she has burned herself

    And blamed herself:

    She learns to allow the heat of her own

    From within,

    To raise the frozen skin,

    Leaving a tender and exhausted potential behind.

  • Nov. 1st 2016 - 2:25 PM

    I've been thinking

    to myself,

    I haven't felt like I'm in life

    for such a long time.

    I don't feel like I'm moving.

    I'm on the outside.

    It is not where I thrive.

    I do not think so at least.

  • Feb. 23rd, 2018 - 12:20 AM

    Crack

    This cage around me

    Gently

    Let it melt please

    Over me

    Let me awake

    Let me breathe

    I want the fresh air

    I crave it

    The smell of sweetgrass

    And chimes

    Ringing ringing

    Like roots

    Like clay