Poetry as Spellcasting

Poems, Essays, and Prompts for Manifesting Liberation and Reclaiming Power

Poems, essays, and prompts to sing a new world into being--Queer & BIPOC perspectives on poetry as an insurgent ritual for manifesting liberation and reclaiming power.

    For poets, spellcasters, and social justice witches, Poetry as Spellcasting positions poetry as a vehicle for healing-justice transformation.
It asks: If ritualized violence upholds white supremacy, what ritualized acts of liberation can be activated to subvert and reclaim power?
    Through essays from a diverse group of contributing poets, organizers, and ritual artists, Poetry as Spellcasting helps readers explore, play, and deepen their creativity and intuition as integral tools for self- and communal healing and social change. Each section opens and closes with a poem, ending with exercises and invitations to the reader.

• Part I explores the ways in which language can both reflect and manifest reality--and shows that poetry and spellcasting allow us to enter into and harness language in active, heightened ways.
• Part II focuses on summoning the Earth’s power, highlighting the magic of eco-poetry in the anthropocene and inviting readers into the embodied knowledge of the Earth.
• Part III explores writing as ritual, ritual as practice, and practice as doing, drawing connections between the creative practices of poetry and spellwork.
• Part IV centers on teachings from ancestors, practices for possible futures, and the legacy of poetry as political practice.
•     Both poetry and occult studies have both been historically dominated by white, cishet writers; here, Poetry as Spellcasting reclaims the centrality of queer and BIPOC voices in poetry, magic, and liberatory spellwork.