Whether the action takes place at a black college in Tuskegee or a village in China, Takara proves once again that she no longer belongs to the United States, but to the globe, no longer captive of the fickle trends of American letters.
– Ishmael Reed, Author, Critic, Playwright
Between Alabama and Ka’a’awa there is a vast ocean of consciousness composed of a movement of infinitesimal water particles in a perfect and perennial dance with the infinitude of life forms. Dr. Waddell Takara captures the mystery of life and beyond with her precise cadence in sync with the divine love constantly generated by the vast and infinitesimal movement. Her open-ended poetics of sensuality transforms the “I” into an affect, inviting readers to experience at first hand the process of becoming-nature, becoming-cosmos, and becoming-whole on a molecular level of existence.
– Masahide T. Kato, PhD, Asst. Professor, PolSc, University of Hawaiʻi at West Oʻahu
In Love’s Seasons Kathryn Takara has captured the complexities of feminine essence. Clearly she has listened to her heart, the hearts of other women, and the female heart throbs in nature. Kathryn has delivered these expressions through relatable passages. The appeal is gender universal as women can identify with the in-depth, multi-dimensional reflections; and men have the opportunity to learn about the wonderful intricacies of femininity.
– Bonnyeclaire Smith-Stewart, CEO and Founder, 4MillionVoices, Inc.
Powerfully mesmerizing in its lyricism, boldly passionate in its sensuality, moving and haunting in its recollection of history and memory, but always grounded in its evocation of Aloha, Kathryn Takara’s Love’s Seasons is a moveable feast to be devoured. This utterly stunning collection reminds us that the art of poetry is very much alive and that its high priestess lives under the moon on the North Shore, Hawaii. Kathryn Takara is a bloody Goddess and should be worshipped wherever there are books! Or campfires, incense and good company. So potent is Kathryn Takara’s language in Love’s Seasons. Takara has taken the rhythms of her history and memory and has created a stunning lei of magnolia and frangipani, one that not only weaves and connects her earlier life in Tuskegee, Alabama to the blue waves of her home in Ka’a’awa, Hawai`i but interweaves her vast experience as a daughter, a mother, a scholar, a global traveler, a spiritual healer, a lover. Love’s Seasons is the lei she gifts us whose vibrancy, bold in its exploration of a woman’s sensuality.
– Sia Figiel, Author
Love’s Seasons takes us into the innermost corners of Kathryn Takara’s heart, chronicling a lifetime of love in all its permutations. Introspective, vulnerable, sensual, and wise, she sets each rite of passage to her own special music. This comprehensive collection is eloquent proof that the poet has come of age.
– Carol Munday Lawrence, Producer/Screenwriter
Journey with Kathryn as she shares with you her immersion in nature, her love of family, here global trotting and her meditation on love. These poems are honest, and as infinite as the myriad faces of nature. The lines whisper like petals unfurling, and by the end of the poems, the brilliant blooms are evident. Love’s Seasons is a bouquet you will want to keep for yourself, but also happy to share.
– Opal Palmer Adisa, Author of 4-Headed Woman
Born into North America’s so-called colored aristocracy, and descended from African, Cherokee, French, German, English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestors, Kathryn Waddell Takara tells and retells her families’ stories of glory in footloose lyrics that linger. The learned poet’s mother “drove Buicks / for almost 50 years / loved to play tennis and throw parties in her youth / played serious bridge with Lionel Richie’s mom / enjoyed canasta with Booker T. Washington’s granddaughter.” Her handsome father “came to Tuskegee to work on peanut-oil / therapy with George Washington Carver / to research a liniment for those paralyzed by polio / like President Roosevelt who reluctantly / visited the campus with his wife.” One poem discloses how First Lady Eleanor “dared fly with a black man!” In daring jumps and leaps and breathless takes – at play like memory itself — Waddell’s swooping memoir — part chant, part prose – celebrates the sacred power of life-spirit, love, yearning, womanhood, manliness, ritual, creativity, and humankind’s blood-deep divinity.
– Al Young, former California poet laureate
Passionate and sumptuous, Love’s Seasons hovers in suspended moments that enthrall us, from the elegance of blood ties to the morning-after musings of night’s raptures. Woven through with lush images of nature, Takara’s poetry reminds us that, as part of the natural world, each experience–like each season–has a rightful place in the rhythm of growing. Through an engrossing exploration of the heart’s dimensions, Takara teaches us that, when the cycle completes, the fifth season is transcendence.
– Brenda Kwon, author of Beyond Ke’eaumoku: Koreans, Nationalism, and Local Culture in Hawai’i and The Sum of Breathing
Takara continues to produce for us poems that are personal, romantic, spicy, funny and inspiring. Love’s Seasons are fresh , new and collected poems that touch that part of our senses that often need special stimulation. In these poems Takara acknowledges her African, Native American and European ancestry that are the roots of her being. As a sensitive woman whose Hawaiian experiences have helped guide her on her chosen path of creativity We thank her for this gift.
– Miles M. Jackson, Professor Emeritus, University of Hawai`i