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Spells: New and Selected Poems
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Annie Finch's Spells brings together her most memorable and striking poems written over forty years. Finch's uniquely mysterious voice moves through the book, revealing insights on the classic themes of love, spirituality, death, nature, and the patterns of time. A feminist and pagan, Finch writes poems as "spells" that bring readers to experience words not just in the min
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Hardcover, 215 pages
Published
April 2nd 2013
by Wesleyan University Press
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A TOP SHELF review originally published in The Monitor
Mystery and Prosody
Annie Finch has spent more than three decades crafting poetry that straddles the border between neo-formalist preoccupation with form (meter, rhyme, stanzas) and the lyrical, experimental tendencies of modernism. Seeing the visceral tug of prosody (study of rhythm, meter) as a way to center the self in a nature-rooted, community-bound sort of spirituality, Finch embraces traditional and even archaic forms while simultaneous ...more
Mystery and Prosody
Annie Finch has spent more than three decades crafting poetry that straddles the border between neo-formalist preoccupation with form (meter, rhyme, stanzas) and the lyrical, experimental tendencies of modernism. Seeing the visceral tug of prosody (study of rhythm, meter) as a way to center the self in a nature-rooted, community-bound sort of spirituality, Finch embraces traditional and even archaic forms while simultaneous ...more
"Everyone should have a copy of Annie Finch’s Spells on their shelf, for those hours when patterned rhythm and sound seem the best approximation of the soul’s speaking." - Jeanetta Calhoun Mish, Oklahoma City University
This book was reviewed in the January 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/1iGLXY4 ...more
This book was reviewed in the January 2014 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://bit.ly/1iGLXY4 ...more
One of my most recent favorites of poetry I have read. I enjoyed the entire book. There were a few poems I did not connect with but the majority of the poems touched me and connected to my own experiences. This was a goodreads giveaway win.
Annie Finch is a feminist and a pagan, to which I am sympathetic despite being an atheist male. However it is her skill as a formalist that mostly appeals to me. She exercises this in several ways in 'Spells' - and as the book covers 40 years of poetry, that is no surprise. The best I can do is to quote little bits I like from several poems, showing not just her skills but her interests:
Time-keeper and -hater, wake-sleeper, sleep-waker;
May language's language, the silence that lies
Under each wor ...more
Time-keeper and -hater, wake-sleeper, sleep-waker;
May language's language, the silence that lies
Under each wor ...more
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Annie Finch is a feminist poet, writer, teacher, speaker, and performer. Her seven collections of poetry include Eve, Calendars, The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells, and the epic poem on abortion Among the Goddesses. She is author of many books about poetry and poetry-writing and editor of the first anthology of literature on abortion, Choice Words: Writers on Abortion. Annie earned a Ph.D from
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“I feel the nights stretching away
thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.”
—
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thousands long behind the days
till they reach the darkness where
all of me is ancestor.”
“A Blessing on the Poets
Patient earth-digger, impatient fire-maker,
Hungry word-taker and roving sound-lover,
Sharer and saver, muser and acher,
You who are open to hide or uncover,
Time-keeper and –hater, wake-sleeper, sleep-waker;
May language’s language, the silence that lies
Under each word, move you over and over,
Turning you, wondering, back to surprise.”
—
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More quotes…
Patient earth-digger, impatient fire-maker,
Hungry word-taker and roving sound-lover,
Sharer and saver, muser and acher,
You who are open to hide or uncover,
Time-keeper and –hater, wake-sleeper, sleep-waker;
May language’s language, the silence that lies
Under each word, move you over and over,
Turning you, wondering, back to surprise.”
