Rachel Tobin’s ancestors lived in Ireland, France and England. For the last 15 years she has made her home in Wellington, where she works with groups and individuals using the tools of Feldenkrais movement eduction, qi gong and NLP coaching. Rachel has been a teacher for much of her life and has an enduring enjoyment of words and their power to move, inspire and invite new ways of seeing.
Prayer on waking
My voice is cut husk and diamond; your heart
unrolls like bedding when I sing.
My eyes are unruffled water; I gaze in the face
of your unrest and see a sun, nesting.
My hand is dappled silk and litmus; it knows
at first touch the animal crouched inside your heart.
My tongue is a festival and colour; I kiss the sour
velvet of your mouth and rust is stained with ruby.
I am sweet-clove sweat and piss; your blankets fly
on crests of incense through the window.
My power is king gazelle and trembling; your throat
a sacred circle, flung back.
This earth tastes of blue morning and coarse song;
rocks clatter as your tip-tilt wings
shout a blood-strained NO
to the smell of freedom
you swear you long for.
