Introducing: Fortunes
Fortunes: Front Cover
Karen Maezen Miller, author of Momma Zen: Walking the Crooked Path of Motherhood:
We have a saying in my practice, "Not knowing is most intimate." Here, Jen reveals the chill shimmer of bone-deep recognition, the eyewitness to incandescence. Without knowing when or how, we pass an inconceivable divide– then and now, daughter to mother, home and away, shadow and light – across halves that no longer exist. And the treasury opens by itself.
For many months I tucked my little journals into my bag whenever I was going to see my friends. Inside their pages were poems I'd written about my own experiences, but when I talked to people I would think of one that they could use and read it to them. Then I watched them soften, as they released something or embraced something. Time and again I wished that I had a duplicate of those little books, so I could just send them along for the journey, and that's how the idea for the Fortunes collection began to unfold.
The words were working some kind of transformation on me, and they made my little journals feel sacred, like prayer books, and my poems like prayers that ran again and again through my mind and my heart. I pulled together the best of them, paired them with powerful images from my collection of vintage-style photography and put them all into a book that's the perfect size to give to you. The perfect size for you to carry in your bag, so they can travel with you on your way. The perfect size for you to give to your friend, when you're talking together and you hear how she could really use it.
There's a way that our creative work often communicates more than we know. We set out to tell the story we're in, and the part of our mind that already knows how the story ends slips in a few clues when we're not looking. Fortunes pays homage to this phenomenon. What is the story you are living in? How does it end? The clarity to see is good fortune, indeed.
Find your fortune here.
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009 at 8:13PM Jen Lee | 6 Comments | in Books, Poetry, Writing Share Article | Permalink
Reader Comments (6)
fortunes is a literary elixir. and you are a modern madeleine. thank you for this treasure.
I want everyone to have a copy of this. Your stories leave me speechless, Jen.
Powerful stories that catch you off guard - and then speak so deeply and honestly that there's no way to ignore them. This book is a treasure, Jen - and it inspires me to "write to the fence" and see what lies beyond.
Hello Jen!
My mom taught senior and AP English to high school seniors for 33 years. I gave her my 2nd copy of Fortunes and her comments today were that you were an excellent writer with wonderful imagery and charming stories. She was moved by your writing.
She LOVES it! What a joyful fun connection we had talking about your writing
today. That is a gift. So, thank you, Jen!
i read and re-read and re-read again and I get something more from these stories with each visit. you, jen lee are amazing. thank you for sharing your gifts with us. the world needs your words.
i've tried to post 3 times now, but cannot find words to thank you for this book. it is alive. it is beautiful and tender and gentle and packed full and open and wonderful. it is like you - it is you. Linda