Kathryn Waddell Takara kept her work hidden in a safe shelter for many years until she decided to open her box of treasures and invite the reader to enter into her world of beauty.

From the Title Page: Pacific Raven where the author is the majestic black flight which soars high in her future of change, challenge, healing strength, and compassion, to the last poem: "Love Endureth" where she opens our hearts, when the reader closes the book, he or she is left with an eager desire to read more of Kathryn’s work. 

I was touched, moved, swept off my feet, gasping for breath as I was taken away by a tsunami of words, metaphors hitting me with an extraordinary power of imagination and expertise in which this gifted poet shares her work. Hers is a poetical voice that sings with abundance. 

In "I Am A Poem" she writes, `I transform/like a phoenix/into sunrays and moonbeams/dropped from life’s flames/poetic words radiate like new leaves/in a forest of clouds!’

So eloquently, so masterfully she weaves and spins her poems with the sharpness of a raven’s spirit. Kathryn is, without the shadow of a doubt, a poet who drinks from many sources. You can feel how she has submerged into and emerged from the depths and spiritual richness of many cultures, creating her own brave new world of dreams, beauty, and reflections on life. 

The way she captures the wild enchantment of her Pacific Islands’ habitat absorbs you into the landscapes, the mountains, the pristine waterfalls, and the scent of flowers. She also invites you to smell and taste Nature, to move into the love space in which she creates so sacredly and spiritually the unseen mysteries, the magical Goddesses.

She writes in "Morning Figs" `Solitary seeker/I sit on a warm rock/sun in memories/ hear the mystic melody of the poetry muse/travel on love’s wings/ride the invisible wind’! 

Kathryn’s rhythmic and lyrical poetry tangles a variety of themes: solitude, politics, travel, history and love. She walks good – stands tall. She is bold enough not to shy away from the darker sides of life, like aging and death. In "Fleeting Vision" she writes, ‘Darkness wants to climb in the lap of my day’; and in "Sunless Memory" she muses, `My own voice has drifted out too far/from the shores of my childhood.’

Throughout the book, one must pause to reflect upon visual and sensual images, easing the mind and soul, and then come to terms with the strength of each poem before moving on.

It is difficult to put this volume of poetry aside before the very last poem is read. Her poems are so intriguing they simply do not let you. They have that rare quality of seducing you into the very heart of each and every one of these jewels, evoking tender moments of insights and the love and spirituality of the author. Finally, the work leaves you in total bewilderment and surprise at its power.

  A perfect example of Kathryn’s power of impression is experienced in the poem "Samantha" where she writes, `Samantha with topaz eyes/sees the bird of Solomon/ through her carnal soul’ and further on: `she smiles her toothless hello in a magic flirt/ and reads the Tarot like novels of intrigue!’

Dr. Kathryn Waddell Takara is a brilliant, new, powerful voice that deserves to be read and heard, to be admired and respected.  

A refreshingly bold, beautiful, and strong new branch on the magical tree of poetry!

Ayin Adams, PhD, author of "The Woods Deep Inside Me"

Kathryn Waddell Takara, born and raised in Tuskegee, Alabama, has recently retired as an Associate Professor from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa, Interdisciplinary Studies Program. She also taught in the Ethnic Studies Department, where she developed courses in African American and African politics, history, literature, and culture beginning in 1971.

Her poetry has been published in a variety of publications including Interdisciplinary Studies Humanities Journal, Writing Macao (China), Kudzu, Honolulu Stories, Words Upon the Waters, The African Journal of New Poetry, Arkansas Review, Africa Literary Journal, Julie Mango Press, Poetry Motel, Peace & Policy, From Totems to Hip Hop, Bamboo Ridge, Rainbird, Konch, Kaimana, Hawai`i Review, Chaminade Literary Review, Ramrod, O`ahu Review, Pleiades, All She Wrote: Hawai`i Women’s Voices, and World of Poetry, an anthology, Her essays have appeared in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Journal, Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, Social Process In Hawai`i, The Black Scholar, The Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History, and Multi-America: Essays on Cultural Wars and Cultural Peace, The Western Journal of Black Studies, The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Magazine, I Ka Huliau, and Valley Voices.

Recipient of the Board of Regents Outstanding Teacher Award and a two-time Fulbright Fellow, Takara holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.A. in French and has taught, advised, and mentored innumerable students. She has read and performed her poetry and lectured extensively in universities, colleges, schools, and community and military events throughout the Hawaiian Islands, the Continental United States of America and in Beijing and Qingdao, China. Takara organized and coordinated several national and international conferences at the University of Hawai`i and in Honolulu. She has also appeared on a variety of television shows, in interviews and documentaries through the years. She enjoys her family, friends, pets, meditation, qi gong, garden, raising orchids and interior design.

Dr. Takara is the daughter of pioneer black veterinarian, author, and world famous Buffalo Soldier, Dr. Wiliam H. Waddell, IV, VMD (1908-2007).