HEAL

This is not a self-care manual. HEAL! is an examination of trauma, pulling it apart and looking at its insides. How it infiltrates and seeps into everything so that when you look closely enough, it's not clear what what is self, and what is a reaction to trauma.

HEAL! is a book of poetry from a survivor who refuses to be quiet. It is harrowing at times, it laughs at its own pain and the people who caused it, with the excruciating sensitivity of someone whose hobbies include rescuing bugs. It has the urgency of a movie star who has taken a last sip of air before swimming through an underwater cave towards the light, only to find its an interior car light at night and they are speeding with an ex-lover hoping insults dont become slaps and cause a crash. Withdrawal, disassociation, and rage offer relief, but the narrator finds she is seeking more - uncompromising tenderness and a deeper understanding of herself than she thought would ever be possible.

HEAL! is Tongan-Pakeha author Simone Kaho's second poetry book.