In the Year of Leaping Ice

Ria Kinzel’s fiercely honest poetry is an inspiration to speak your own truth. In her extraordinary poem, “Coming of Rage,” she witnesses against injustice and cruelty as she discovers for herself oppression in apartheid South Africa, denigration of women, and a religion of sin and shame. Follow her through time and geography to growing wisdom in “Questions of Voice.” With humor and tenderness, she shares “Grace Notes” of her life — midwives, meditation, laughing children, ice mountains, wolverine ecstasy, spring sun, and doves of forgiveness. Ria Kinzel’s poems have taken root “deep in the dandelion cracks of my mind.” Her poetry is powerful and can open the hearts of her readers.

Ria Kinzel grew up in South Africa. After clashing violently with the Apartheid government, she emigrated to Canada to teach Inuit students in the Far North. Doing a complete u-turn, much of her time since then has been devoted to fostering world peace. She has taught elementary and high school English in Alberta and Iowa. Central to her pedagogical theory is the prevention of boredom. Her interest in meditation led to the study of sections of India’s Vedic literature. She currently lives in Calgary, close to family and the Rocky Mountains, where she teaches meditation.