WelCom February 2019:
Nicola McCarthy
L-r: Shirley Kelland, Anne Powell and Marguerite Osborne. Photo: Supplied
Anne Powell’s new book of poetry, The Edge of Things, was launched among 100 guests in Te Whaea Tapu o Kāpiti School Hall, Paraparaumu, on 1 December 2018. Many of the poems in this fourth book of Anne’s involve ‘the language of water’, parish priest Fr Michael McCabe said in his opening address. Anne’s poetic voice ‘takes us beyond the edge of things and into the river beneath the river; to find a place where we can be both at home with our own story on the edge of things and allow that story to emerge in life-giving ways for ourselves and others.’
Mike Fitzsimons, of Fitzbeck Creative, said Anne had found her poetic voice, ‘deeply spiritual rather than narrowly religious’, with ‘plenty of attitude’ and demonstrating a keen awareness that ‘God is in all things’.
Trish Harris, a writer and tutor at Whitireia Polytechnic, spoke about Anne’s ability to ‘shift a phrase, open a window in our minds and encourage us to look in a new direction; where the river might question us…’
The launch had look and feel of a liturgy, celebrating the spiritual and grounding quality of Anne’s poetry. It featured the reading of favourite poems accompanied by music and story, a blessing of the book by two local kuia and words from Anne about how the poems came to be written.
The Edge of Things is published by The Cuba Press. It can be purchased online from the Cenacle website cenacle.org.nz ($25 +$5 p&p); The Cuba Press; and from good bookshops.