Spells. Annie Finch

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      Spells

      WESLEYAN POETRY

      ALSO BY ANNIE FINCH

      Poetry

       The Encyclopedia of Scotland

       Eve

       Calendars

       Among the Goddesses

      Prose

       The Ghost of Meter: Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse

       The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self

       A Poet’s Craft: A Comprehensive Guide to Making and Sharing Your Poetry

       A Poet’s Ear: A Handbook of Meter and Form

      Translation

       The Complete Poetry of Louise Labé

      Edited Volumes

       A Formal Feeling Comes: Poems in Form by Contemporary Women

       After New Formalism: Poets on Form, Narrative, and Tradition

      An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art (with Katherine Varnes)

      Carolyn Kizer: Perspectives on Her Life and Work (with Johanna Keller and Candace McClelland)

      Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics (with Deborah Brown and Maxine Kumin)

      Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form (with Susan M. Schultz)

      Villanelles (with Marie-Elizabeth Mali)

      Spells

      NEW & SELECTED POEMS

      ANNIE FINCH

      WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY PRESS

       Middletown, Connecticut

      Wesleyan University Press

      Middletown CT 06459

       www.wesleyan.edu/wespress

      © 2013 Annie Finch

      All rights reserved

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      Typeset in Galliard by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.

      Wesleyan University Press is a member of the

      Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book

      meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper.

      This project is supported in part by a grant from the

      National Endowment for the Arts.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Finch, Annie, 1956–

      [Poems. Selections]

      Spells: new and selected poems /

      Annie Finch.—First edition.

      pages cm.—(Wesleyan Poetry Series)

      ISBN 978-0-8195-7269-1 (cloth: alk. paper)—

      ISBN 978-0-8195-7363-6 (ebook)

      I. Title.

      PS3556.I448S64 2013

      811’.54—dc23

      2012044385

      5 4 3 2 1

      CONTENTS

       Preface, xi

       NEW POEMS

       Blessing on the Poets, 3

       Homebirth, 4

       Abortion Spell, 5

       Your Land, 6

       Stone and Cloth and Paper, 7

       The Naming, 8

       Frost’s Grave, 10

       Tarot: The Magician Card, 11

       Keys, 12

       Beach of Edges, 13

       Earth Day, 14

       Revelry, 15

       Architecture, 16

       POEMS, 2000–1990

       Watching the Whale, 19

       Paravaledellentine: A Paradelle, 20

       Wild Yeasts, 21

       Earth Goddess and Sky God, 22

       Conversation, 23

       Calendars, 24

       Over Dark Arches, 27

       A Carol for Carolyn, 28

       Chain of Women, 29

       Ghazal for a Poetess, 30

       Meeting Mammoth Cave, Eight Months Pregnant, 31

       Butterfly Lullaby, 32

       Intimations of Pregnancy, 33

       Walk with Me, 34

       Two Bodies, 35