News about HER LIMITLESS HER“…a poet who deals in ecstatically charged invocations. She is at once a shaman expressionist, cultural historian and eco-defender…some (poems) read like read like lost epistles, spells and incantations, while others still are like transcripts to lyrical interrogations of time and memory, love and motherhood, towns and coasts, the tidelines of life and death.” Hoopla Series from Makaro Press "The bounty of women, how far they'll go, how far they can stretch – to love, to encompass, to bear. Find them here: bosom-packed, dreamy, dragging their offspring, twinsets askew, peeling, darning, preening. In Her Limitless Her Reihana Robinson has created a beguiling space for her to stretch on the page, and for joy to dance and grief to spin." An invitation to read at the 2019 Auckland Writers and Readers Festival was extended to me by Vana Manasiadis as part of the event to launch her new book of poetry called The Grief Almanac: A Sequel. What the stars sayI hear bird bones crack, splinter. Matariki have seen it all before — Yes, mad as a meat axe. I hear gunshots at the growing wall, The bleached face of Sirius gives no My ageless self trapped in a maimai — It seems I am lasting forever, as long as I blush and quiver to see myself What They Are Saying About AUĒ RONA:“…a vibrant and inventive first collection.” “…a masterful reworking of myth” "Reihana's poetry is absolutely stunning. Her revolutionary voice has a magical, ethereal quality about it. I always want to read more." “Energetic, complex, filled with provocative imagery and luscious language.” “I love the mythic, edgy vision of Reihana’s poems.”
“In this compelling first collection, Reihana Robinson offers a nuanced re-imagining of the Maori Rona legend through lyrical poems of love, transgression and sorrow that flesh out and challenge the archetypal notion of the woman in the moon. Here Rona's voice alternates between worry for her children's future in a contemporary New Zealand and an ecstatic appreciation for the ambiguous stroke of luck that elevated her from the life of an ordinary woman eking out a difficult living to the consort and lover of a celestial being.” Praise for AUP New Poets 3:“With Reihana Robinson there is a delightful Pacific Island flavour. Done exquisitely though and not patronisingly. I liked 'Thinking of my Father' best, I think. There is an air of authority about the poems that is not too obtrusive. And the speculation about Thai restaurants, fine. And, 'Waiting for the Palagi' - forever? There is much here that is worthy of some careful reading; highly recommended.” |