house concert
POETRY and PIANO in Pukerua Bay
SAT 30 MARCH
7.30pm
Please join Uriele and me for an evening of piano and poetry, some new work and some from Say it Naked. Please bring cash for koha, something you’d like to drink, and your open, listening heart. Uriele is a piano teacher and composer and her work is moving, heartfelt and beautiful.
say it naked
Rachel’s first collection of poetry, Say it Naked, was published by Mākaro Press in October 2018. The poems are accompanied by life drawing sketches.
about the book
‘Say it Naked contains poems from the five-year period of time in which I lost my physical voice. The first section, drawing from life, is dedicated to influences, both from the past and the present natural world, that have shaped and affected me. Poems in the second section, undressing, were mostly inspired by the death or loss of people and conditions that I relied on for happiness and a sense of identity. The work in the third section, behind the pose, represents a growing directive to ‘speak straight’, to say things as they are, without pretense or posturing, and to face my own shadow and conditioned patterns of thought and behaviour without flinching. The final section, waking, contain poems that are written in celebration of the great force of Life itself, which transcends all physical conditions and influences. They are in essence love poems, not to individuals, but to the great Spirit of Life Itself, to the universal Lover, to the Beloved.
‘The naked human form has, for me, always been symbolic of beauty, vulnerability and free expression. The drawings here are photographs of sketches drawn from the life model, most with a small group of local artists on the Kapiti Coast.
‘Writing this collection was part of the journey of reclaiming my own voice, both physically and metaphorically.’
what people say
‘These poems are passionate prayers and songs that traverse the terrains of city, country, sea and sky… Rachel explores what it means to be human palpably, vulnerably, honestly, erotically, deftly. With the knack of fine observation, deep feeling and brave reflection, Rachel invites us to consider love, loss, awakening and beauty in a way that transcends judgment and takes us into spacious acceptance…’
- Nicola Easthope, poet and teacher, Kapiti Coast
how to buy the book (NZ$25)
postage
NZ: 1 book: NZ$2.40 (letter rate)
Australia: 1 book NZ$3.08 (letter rate)); 2 books (parcel $8.93)
Rest of world: 1 book NZ$3.60; 2 books (parcel: $15.90)