SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

by Hannah Schenker.

I walked into the Mussel Inn, Golden Bay, on Live Poets night a couple of years ago, a gig I rarely attended but had been coaxed to by a new friend. On the stage was this beautiful creature: young woman, short hair, boyish clothes – I immediately tuned in to what she was saying. She spoke with a smooth American accent, fearless and political, speaking those dangerous words I was always to shy to say. Rebecca.

“I won’t apologise for my diatribe”

I approached her afterward, singing praises – “You remind me of Ani Difranco!” which I thought was the highest compliment I could pay. A friendship formed in the next few months, as I was welcomed into a young poets weekly get-together at her place. And here we are today, time slipped and slid around us as we grew and grew…a new name launched and now I am fortunate to be a friend of Redwood Reider, and reviewing her album Poetree.

“What a journey! The enclosed CD comes from a long simmer: dreaming, grappling, raging, reveling, scrawling, speaking louder, speaking deeper, connecting to earth, sky, and everyone around me (as trees do) and watching what poured through.”

Her poems touch on our kind of lives, our kind of thoughts – the wonder of our bodies and our sexuality; a revered and beloved Mother Nature; conscious environmentalism; our universal connection; the pitfalls of globalisation and capitalism; spirituality.

“as though a soul could be defined by he or she as though there was a line between you and me as if my veins don’t grow into roots of a tree as though my blood’s not a drop of water swimming sea”

She skilfully combines rhyme and rhythm, the political with the personal. Juxtaposing images of beauty alongside images of destruction – an underlying message that we need to hold onto our heart intentions, hold dear our Planet, our Mother. Rethink the messages we are constantly bombarded with and decide our new realities, a new future.

“So hold the sufferings of this world in your heart brother.  There’s a lot to fit in so you’ll have to expand.  And stand.  Stop the mines! Hold the lines!  Reject their mutated seeds!  Resist their currency!  Plant a garden, feed the community, save the bees let grow the weeds let go the whole concept of weeds!”

I am not usually one to get stuck into political poetry- I get lost somewhere and drift away into non-thinking. But Redwood has the gift of accessibility – these poems are stories, these poems resonate with me, these poems also contain some kind of realness and bravery that I can hold onto.

“So was I oppressed?  Or did I get off easy?  Learning to bend, stand a bit crooked, not show so much chest.  Feeling like I was in drag whenever they got ME to wear a dress.”

The musical accompaniment is subtle and haunting in some tracks, full of energy and spark in others.  Beatboxing, vocals, guitar, Native American flute, cello, shruti box, djembe and didjeridoo, to name a few! I particularly loved the very first track – ‘Potluck’ – which rang out to me with humour and lightness – come back to that one when you’ve listened to the rest. She’ll lift you back up to a place of unapologetic aliveness.

But the greatest thing Redwood left me with was this: There is no shame in being a woman, a lover, a strong, pulsing, beating heart of a person. There is room here for me. I can be a conscious creator.  It is my responsibility to love and keep on loving.

“You’re stronger than you think you are.  And if you think you’re strong, well you’re stronger than that too.  And when you let your voice bloom, it frees everyone around you…”

Reviewed by Hannah Schenker.

Tags: poetry