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Maya

@mayapens

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Spirituality, healing, & growth ♾️
ULTRAVIOLET out now!💜 Reached #1 in new Asian American & Nature poetry on Amazon
Bay Area, CA

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I’m beyond excited to finally reveal the cover of my upcoming poetry book, Ultraviolet 💜✨ A collection about awakening, healing, growth, and transformation, this book means so much to me, and this cover feels like the perfect visual doorway into its world.

Huge thank you to Rachel Clift (@r.cliftpoetry) 💫, a gifted poet and book designer who has helped me bring this book to life through her Polaris Indie Scholarship and artist Emily Woodard (@ecwoodard.studio) whose original oil-on-wood painting became the heart of this cover. Her work is stunning, & whimsical, and I’m so honored to share both the final cover and a photo of the original artwork in this post.

Both of these artists brought so much thought, care, and brilliance to this process & I can’t be more thrilled by how everything turned out!

Rachel, I look forward to working with you over the next few months as we bring the book to the market. I couldn’t do any of this without you 🙏🏽

Ultraviolet is out May 28, and preorders open April 30!! 🎉📚 by @mayapens

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6 months ago

Inner work is garden work 🌱🌱🌱 by @mayapens

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a year ago

Hi friends 👋🏽 It feels like time to reintroduce myself for the new faces here, and for anyone who remembers me from my early blogging days.

A little about me:

✨ My professional background is in global beauty marketing & content strategy.

✨ I’m based in the Bay Area, California, where I live with my husband.

✨ Aside from writing, I love birding and hiking, reading tarot & oracle, wandering in bookstores, and trying new restaurants.

✨ The scrub jay is my spirit animal and a guide in my healing journey.

Poetry wasn’t even on my radar until 2023, when a illness cracked me open. Writing was always a lifeline, but poetry arrived and stayed.

Since then, I’ve finished my first collection, Ultraviolet: Meditations on Healing & Transformation, which will be published in 2026. It’s about healing from illness and the transformation that follows in consciousness, identity, and self. You’ll find threads of birds and the animate world, meditation, love and family. Ultimately, it’s a reminder of our inherent divinity and the power of consciousness to expand when we align with the creative, blissful current of life.

I also share new work and a personal reflection in my Substack newsletter, Just This. It’s become one of my favorite ways to connect more deeply.

Grateful for this community of poets, poetry lovers, seekers, writers, and creatives. Here’s to new connections, shared words, and the journey ahead. 🫶 by @mayapens

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a year ago

August, dreaming of a better world…

A poem from my book, Ultraviolet: Meditations on Healing & Transformation

#ultraviolet #healingandtransformation #poetsofinsta #indiepoet #poemoftheday❤️ by @mayapens

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a month ago

Today’s total solar eclipse meets the new moon, all in Leo—a powerful reset point for shedding the old, reclaiming your light, & choosing what you’re ready to create next. 🌑☀️

A poem from my book, Ultraviolet: Meditations on Healing & Transformation 💜

#healingandtransformation #ultraviolet #totalsolareclipse #newmoon #indiepoet by @mayapens

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2 months ago

I’m feeling so incredibly thankful for the kindness and thoughtfulness behind the reviews for Ultraviolet. 🥹💜

When I first decided to share this collection with the world, I wondered whether these small pieces of my own story would feel meaningful to others.

These reviews have been such a beautiful reminder that vulnerability creates connection. The feelings we experience—the pain, love, healing, growth, dreams, and moments in between—are the very things that remind us we are not alone.

Thank you to everyone who has read Ultraviolet, shared your thoughts, and taken the time to leave a review. Your support and your words have meant more than I can put into words. 💜✨

#bookreviewsofinstagram #poetrybookreviews #ultraviolet #indiepoet #poetsofinsta by @mayapens

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2 months ago

For anyone who needs this reminder 🩶 I recently wrote this poem alongside a reflection on my substack on our shared oneness in case you’re curious to check it out. Link in bio :)

#indiepoet #poetofinsta #interconnectedness #oneness poemoftheday by @mayapens

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2 months ago

A poem from my book, Ultraviolet: Meditations on Healing & Transformation 🐝🐝🐝

#Ultraviolet #bee #essence #healingandtransformation #indiepoet by @mayapens

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2 months ago

I am the ocean
rising, falling,
bearing tides
of truth,
breaking upon
the shore.

I am the earth
ever spinning
so subtly; look
at how I never
stop turning for you,
while helping you walk
on solid ground.

I am the sun
blazing tirelessly
in the face of
the unknown,
igniting new
stories, as possibilities
abound.

I am the moon
glistening like
glacé or mirror
glaze, reflecting
your shadow;
look at my shine.
I’ll help you let go.

A poem from my new book, Ultraviolet: Meditations on Healing & Transformation 💜🌖✨

#Ultraviolet #healingandtransformation #earth #sun #elemental by @mayapens

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3 months ago

Some favorite lines from poems in my book, Ultraviolet, shared here as they appear in the text—fragments of language that felt worth holding onto outside the page. 💜

#quotes #indiepoet #poetsoninstagram #poetsofinsta #healingandtransformation by @mayapens

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3 months ago

It’s been just over a month since my poetry book Ultraviolet launched. 💜 For a brief moment, it reached #1 in Nature Poetry and Asian American Poetry, which still feels a little surreal in a “wait, that actually happened?!” kind of way. 🙂

Then things got quieter, as they sometimes tend to after a launch.

I’ve been thinking about that quiet as part of the process. A book launch is a moment, but a body of work is a long game. The numbers move quickly, but what actually matters is continuing to show up, writing, sharing, learning, & trusting it all adds up over time.

There’s something a little funny about the in-between…the ongoing stretch of making things without any clear sense of where they’re heading, but doing it anyway.

As with most things in life, that’s where curiosity helps most…staying willing to experiment, try things, miss the mark sometimes, and keep going anyway.

Success isn’t only in the peaks. It’s in returning to the work, again and again. 🙏🏽

#ultraviolet #indiepoet #PRBookPromo26 #poeticreveries_ by @mayapens

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3 months ago

Currently in Florida enjoying all the thunderstorms amid the heat. While the whistle thrush is native to Europe, I thought it was fitting for this poem. ⛈️🕊️

#whistlethrush #stormcock #poemoftheday #indiepoet #poetsofinsta by @mayapens

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3 months ago