Risa Kaparo is a teacher, therapist and writer who makes her home on the island of Kauai. Her life, like that of the Handless Maiden—the character from the fairy tale that forms the thematic underpinning of this collection—was transformed when a life-threatening illness challenged her to grow beyond the conventions of her schooling and learn how to heal herself from the inside out. This eventually led to the birth of her life's work, Somatic Learning, a methodology of transformative healing based on a synthesis of psychological, somatic and meditative disciplines. "Embrace" is poetry fired in a crucible of suffering. It is a life told in a lyrical narrative that moves from abuse to love and redemption, from darkness to light. These poems are autobiographical and mythical at the same moment, visceral and spiritual. They sing." –Richard Garcia.
