Taste the Sky

About the Book

"This weave of sacred poems and images evokes the mystery of formless heartspace...a generous, grace-filled offering!" –Tara Brach, author of Radical Acceptance and Trusting the Gold.

"This book is full of the most beautiful gentle reminders...each one of them to be savoured like a delicious praline. Rashani's fine and delicate art reflects the depth of the poems so perfectly. Thank you, Rashani, for this offering. So needed in this time!" –Deva Premal, grammy-nominated devotional singer.

"This book is a coalescence of Soul-inspired art with Soul-inspired words. It is a natural union of the heart with the mind, the mind with the heart. Together they become one. Each collage created for each chosen phrase is a meditation in and of itself. It is a book to be savored slowly, with enough time to be absorbed again and again." –Shiana Seitz, author of Morning Words and First You Let it Go.

"As I turned through the pages of Rashani Rea's mystical collages and Chelan Harkin's seer-like poetry, I sensed angels tapping my soul with a numinous sensation. Their combined artistry touches the spot where our soul seeks to express our infinite genius. I felt like I was walking inside a stream, sensing how life is held, seen, and heard. How the ordinary is extraordinary when we take time to pray with Nature, listen to our insights, and follow our hearts. Each piece is a full sound and a meditation. When we allow our rawness and our vulnerabilities to kiss the lips of our trueness." –Carolyn Riker, poet & author, author of This is Love and Blue Clouds. 

"The way Rashani has of weaving together words and images touches a part of me that is singing the same song, crying with the longing to be One, to be known, to be felt. And Chelan Harkin's poetry opens a place in me that cracks open my heart, and helps my Soul take flight...to the place I know we all belong.... far beyond this world and yet intimately one with everything. Thank you Rashani and Chelan for sharing such beauty with the world." –Rajyo Allen, co-founder of Samasati Sanctuary, author of Fumbling Towards Freedom: Initiations on the Journey Home to Myself.  

"In the same way as a bird has to open its wings in order to fly, we have to open our hearts so as to truly live. This is the message underpinning this stunningly beautiful book Taste the Sky. Rashani Rea's soulful artwork combined with the sublime poetry of Chelan Harkin make each page an experience to savour and deeply reflect upon. Just like the ancient contemplative practice of Lectio Divina, there is a hidden music on each and every page, that cries out to be listened to from the "ear of our heart." Allow this beautiful book to draw you deeper into the mysterious depths of your being; that place where our individual wholeness and the transcendence of our individual wholeness meet. I shall treasure this book, and read it again and again, for it is such a wonderful joy." –Christopher Goodchild, author of Unclouded by Longing and The Winds of Homecoming.

"I have found in these current times, it is the little treasures of truths that capture your mind, spark your spirit, and stir a resonance of your soul by tiny powerful snippets. This can be for us a fundamental, encouraging, daily dose of medicine that we can actualize, absorb and elevate. Taste the Sky is just that. Rashani Réa's collages come from a depth of a life lived in art, nature, mindful community and supporting others through the underworlds of loss and grief. Both Rashani and Chelan have surrendered to the mystic within, becoming conduits of reciprocity with the muse of the outer mystic—that speaks through us in some divine presence. The first time I came across Chelan Harkin's words I was taken, and that love affair of prose hasn't stopped, it just keeps deepening. The two paired is a little heaven upon your bedside or coffee table. A tangible portal into the mystery." –K.M. McCauley Anast, author of Myrtle, Shifting Shadows Through Grief & Cancer

About the Author

A social activist and prolific artist since childhood, Rashani continues to be a resilient voice in the emerging inter-spiritual movement. Her non-sectarian offerings are rooted in nature, social justice, self-inquiry, the Deep Feminine, Wu-wei, ancient perennial wisdom traditions and several contemporary psycho-spiritual teachings. She has recorded 15 albums of Soetry (songs and poetry), published 40 books and has created more than 350 greeting cards in celebration of the diversity of timeless wisdom. A mother, lover, grief whisperer, builder & architect, tree planter, devoted gardener & landscape artist, Rashani has co-created two eco-sanctuaries on the Big Island of Hawai`i, where she currently resides. She has been facilitating retreats and offering councils, kirtans and participatory concerts throughout the world for the past 35 years and offers 2 and 4-week individual & group retreats at Kipukamaluhia Sanctuary—her home—in Hawai`i.

Other Books by Rashani include:

go slowly, breathe and smile, co-authored with Thich Nhat Hanh
Beyond Brokenness. (The Danish version is called Sangen I Sorgen)
The Time of Transformation is Here
Chakra Poems
A Soft Imminence of Rain: Celtic Poems by Alice O. Howell
A Cry of Windbells
My Bird Has Come Home
The Unfurling of an Artist: Early Collages and Calligraphy of Rashani Réa
Welcome to the Feast: In Celebration of Wholeness
Is The Bowl Empty or Is It Filled with Moonlight?: Turning Words
and Bodhi Leaves
Mahalo: Visual Koans for the Pathless Journey
Always Choose Love
Moonlight on a Night Moth’s Wing: A Fusion of Image and Word
True Golden Sand
Timeless Offerings
The Way Moonlight Touches
Shimmering Birthless: A Confluence of Verse and Image
An Unfolding of Love
Touched by Grace: Through a Temenos of Women
Territory of Wonder
Gossamer Mirrors
In Praise of Love: A Dialogue Between a Dove and a Ladybug
The Disappearance
The Threshold Between Loss and Revelation
A Brief Collision with Clockocracy
I Can Hear Her Breathing
Collaborating with the Inevitable
The Fire of Darkness: What Burned Me Away Completely, I Became
Only One Surrender
Three Children’s Stories, which include: Present Moment, Colorful Moment:
Sharing Present Moment Awareness with Children, Tao and the Moon
and Can You Draw a Shooting Star?: A Child’s Experience and Expression of Loss
The Mercurial Impermanence of Aliveness
Who or What Remains?
Pencil Sharpeners and Thunderstorms
A Coven of Dakinis: In Honor of Thirteen Women Who Have Touched My Life
Waves into Water
Nameless

Rashani also created collections of collages for Leaves from Moon Mountain by Dorothy Hunt and Gathering Silence by Ivan M. Granger

About Chelan Harkin:

Inspired poetry has been flowing through Chelan for years though her publishing journey is only a year and a half old. Her launch into sharing her poetry with the world has been mystical, transformational and filled with prayer experiments gone right. She is thrilled to now be offering speaking events nationally and internationally. Chelan is 33 years old and lives in a geographically spectacular region of Washington state in the US with her husband, Noah, and their two small, beautiful children, Amari and Nahanni. In her poetry and in her life, Chelan continually invites the fumbling, suffering parts of our human nature along with our divinity to meet for tea in the heart, to have a great laugh, celebrate our sacred grief and share a big hug. Along with Taste the Sky, she has authored two other books of poetry, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance!: The Stumble and Whirl with The Beloved. More to come soon! 

Other Books by Chelan include:

Susceptible to Light: Poetry by Chelan Harkin
Let Us Dance: The Stumble and Whirl with the Beloved
Wild Grace