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.