Missing Witches - The Muse Is You： Listener Poetry Reading Special with Callie Little

00:00:00.960 The Missing Witches podcast is entirely listener-funded.

00:00:05.820 If you love the project and you want to support us and our community building,

00:00:10.140 please consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com slash missingwitches. 1.00

00:00:15.460 You aren't being a proper woman, therefore you must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:21.540 You must be a witch. 1.00

00:00:23.760 Hello and welcome to the Missing Witches Coven.

00:00:26.880 today is so super special because for the second time but hopefully for the first time as an annual

00:00:36.280 thing going forward today is our missing witches listener poetry reading so today you're going to

00:00:43.520 be hearing poetry that's been submitted and read by our listener coven i'm so excited i can't wait

00:00:49.660 for you all to stick the kettle on, first of all, stick kettle on, strap in for the emotional

00:00:56.740 roller coaster that is coming, and to help me introduce the reading today, I am joined by a

00:01:06.320 wonderful guest, Callie Little, who is the co-host of the Pocket Coven podcast, and also for our

00:01:17.620 needs today teaches a class called the witch's poem witchcraft as muse and mentor thank you so

00:01:28.120 much for joining us today please tell our listeners a little bit about yourself yeah thank you for

00:01:35.440 having me it has been so long since I've seen your little zoom face and uh you know we had you on our

00:01:44.440 podcast last year, and it was so special. And Amber and I were both like, Oh, Risa and Amy.

00:01:54.120 I have been doing so many things, as per usual, very, very multi passionate over here. But

00:02:00.660 I did start teaching a poetry class through Hugo House, which is a Seattle based writing

00:02:08.600 community and resource. And I'm teaching this with my dear friend, award-winning poet Jennifer

00:02:17.020 Borges Foster. And we have been kind of shepherding our students through a metaphysical

00:02:27.980 process of poetry writing. So because this happened over the spring equinox, we planned

00:02:34.060 the class to be based around the story of Persephone's ascent and created our own poems

00:02:40.940 about our personal underworlds, whether those are, you know, deep, dark, and scary, or really

00:02:47.600 comfortable, homey, safe cocoons, and then emerging into the world, you know, is that bright and

00:02:54.100 beautiful, or is it really blindingly bright and scary and overwhelming? And we crafted these poems

00:03:02.180 with our students to be not only beautiful pieces of writing that really work, you know,

00:03:08.560 as a piece of prose, but also as a manifestation spell. So it's been really fun and really special.

00:03:17.980 There have been tears. I'm sure there have been probably many tears and a lot of laughter and

00:03:23.820 aha moments and unwanted realizations that are needed but yeah the writer's life you know yeah

00:03:35.800 exactly can you talk about a little bit about the the title of your class like the witch's poem

00:03:42.200 how do you think of the witch's poem as a thing and how can witchcraft be a muse and a mentor

00:03:48.860 obviously this is a class that goes on and on but if there was like a bumper sticker version of

00:03:53.340 right i mean luckily it it's that one's a six week course so it is at least contained but

00:04:02.380 the witch's poem spellcraft as muse and mentor was a brilliant title that my co-teacher jen

00:04:12.280 came up with and jen is not a self-proclaimed witch jen is a poet and as we went through the

00:04:19.840 class they were like maybe I am a witch and I was like yeah I know you're a witch I know that

00:04:25.260 but you know this happens around here all the time oh yeah you know if you identify with it

00:04:33.340 I my personal definition of witch by the way is somebody who is aware of change that they

00:04:42.560 want to enact in their life and who simultaneously just wants to be called a witch

00:04:48.220 that's it you have to have both but other than that yeah this we talk about this all the time

00:04:55.280 like um activists are by our definition witches it's like anyone who thinks that they have

00:05:01.400 any kind of power to change the world in our view is in our view and by our labels and under our

00:05:10.640 for sure a witch a witch yeah nobody has to ascribe to it if they don't want to um there's

00:05:17.060 power in words and sometimes words can feel disempowering to some and that's totally okay

00:05:22.240 you know which was not a word that was developed out of love for wisdom um but anyway the class

00:05:30.300 the concept was to use basically the framework of spellcraft as a framework for writing a poem

00:05:40.620 and really like I don't know that there's a different way to craft a poem you know the point

00:05:46.780 of poetry is to meditate on an idea so what is that if not spell work you know you're thinking

00:05:57.340 about something you're kind of alchemizing it into a new form of language to concretize it

00:06:05.040 and then hopefully it creates a stirring you know whether that's in the universe or in another

00:06:11.180 person. But I suppose the way that our class shifted a little bit is we tried to identify

00:06:17.560 you know a really tangible outcome in our lives and how we might achieve that through using you

00:06:27.740 know not to be a little too capital and new age about it but to use affirmation as part of that

00:06:38.160 process um I personally have a belief in uh this thing that I call sacrificing your shame

00:06:45.440 and I listeners I hope you have your pencil ready with your cup of tea say it again say it again

00:06:55.060 I believe in sacrificing your shame and what I mean by that is I guess it's two things really

00:07:04.160 the the first is identify the source of shame in you and instead of shying away from it or trying 0.57

00:07:14.060 to push it away really embrace it and then this is the more witchy part I think imagine it as a

00:07:22.540 sacrificial lamb truly and actually visualize slitting its throat there's no other way for me

00:07:31.880 to describe it, but I feel like that visual as a lifestyle vegan, by the way, I feel like

00:07:40.760 that visual is so powerful because I very much believe in Carl Jung's act of imagination

00:07:47.420 work.

00:07:48.400 I use that a lot in my own spellcraft.

00:07:51.440 And when we can invoke that sense of shame purposefully and say like, this is the thing

00:07:58.980 that causes me suffering.

00:08:00.340 we can free it you know and I think poetry is sort of like

00:08:10.060 what's the word that I'm looking for maybe I'll just keep talking and it'll come out

00:08:15.860 but as opposed to like a journal entry or a diary entry or an essay there's like a freedom of

00:08:23.440 emotion in it you can write a poem about all of your worst qualities and it seems a little bit

00:08:31.380 it goes down a little bit differently than if you were to just list your their bad qualities

00:08:37.340 there's something about poetry that's like an open invitation to whatever emotion that you're

00:08:43.020 feeling yeah and you know there's no true definition of like a good poem which is one

00:08:51.780 of the reasons it pretty often intimidates me to write because as a career journalist

00:08:59.280 and writer, I can write something that I know is a good essay. It's grammatically correct.

00:09:06.300 It makes a solid argument. It's laid out well. A poem cannot be like conceptually good. It just

00:09:17.320 is itself and then it's completely up to the reader whether or not it's good but when we are

00:09:25.500 writing it you know we really have to be honest to the point of discomfort in order to create

00:09:33.680 something that people connect with and we can you know hide that in unique ways of expression

00:09:41.820 but if there is not a deep level of disclosure in a poem readers can't fall in love with it they

00:09:50.660 can't see themselves reflected because that's in my opinion what makes poetry so beautiful and

00:09:55.920 special I love this like there's no objective definition or you know set of qualities required

00:10:05.620 to make a good poem and therefore a bad poem so listeners you can be absolutely free of even the

00:10:13.340 notion of trying to write a good poem because we don't know what that looks like until the process

00:10:18.400 is done and even then like with all arts you know some of my favorite artists are some of my

00:10:24.240 friends least favorite artists and we have to give that to ourselves too you know absolutely

00:10:30.560 i also really encourage folks to just write because i 0.94

00:10:38.540 do you allow cursing on this podcast amy yeah okay cool fuck yeah that's always our answer to 0.99

00:10:47.280 that i had a friend describe this piece of writing as clearing the shit nozzle 0.99

00:10:56.380 and the idea is that you know your creative font goes dormant sometimes you know we go through 0.96

00:11:05.480 periods of hibernation in that way and just like a hose in your yard that you left out

00:11:11.380 and it has been filled with you know earthworms and dirt and gravel and mud and garbage you got

00:11:19.000 to just let the hose run for a little while before clean beautiful water starts coming through and

00:11:25.960 I've written so many horrible things. I, oh my God, last week I had a box of mementos arrive to

00:11:38.480 me and I'm estranged from my family of origin. So I had long made peace with the idea I would

00:11:43.580 never see photos or anything from my childhood again. And one of the things I received was

00:11:51.480 a poem that I must have written when I was 13 maybe 12 and it was just like this is barely

00:12:00.140 paraphrasing why haven't you called you said you'd call at 9 and it's 9 15 I need to hear your voice 0.95

00:12:08.380 why haven't you called and it was just that over and over again really awful and I was like damn

00:12:15.720 we all start somewhere i'm gonna officially disagree i love that poem just like why haven't

00:12:22.300 you called over and over again it's probably some of the most relatable poetry especially coming

00:12:28.080 from an 11 12 year old you're right i was a poet laureate um but you know we just we have to express

00:12:38.220 ourselves and don't worry about being good worry about being honest don't worry about being good

00:12:47.100 worry about being honest and with that I'm going to read a short poem that I wrote after

00:12:56.200 having heard all of the poems that you listeners submitted so this is a poem that I wrote about you

00:13:04.440 writing your poems and it is perhaps uncreatively titled love poem these little bits of you

00:13:13.620 words collaged from letters torn from magazines and memories from mumbled moments and shouting

00:13:21.340 seconds speed of light visions almost sucked forever into a black hole of the forgotten

00:13:28.180 you reach out from the safety of your skin you grab and pull the star back to you

00:13:34.720 you swallowed it and when it had bathed in your stomach made friends with your bacteria

00:13:42.100 crawled through your breath up past your heart got stuck for a while in your throat

00:13:48.240 then between your cheek and gum and slept for a while on your tongue

00:13:53.900 it leapt softly from your mouth into the air a lit a lee it was a poem

00:14:03.980 Callie let's hear some listener poetry I'm so excited to hear it Zoe flowers in praise of the

00:14:12.480 witch earth we are the elements stay close to the ground omnipresent six feet under our mother's

00:14:22.160 blood courses through our veins out our wombs down legs feeding soil hungry we are dirty with

00:14:30.260 your sadness different from anyone you know omnipotent we lick wounds and swallow sorrows 0.99

00:14:36.700 name ourselves goddess are not afraid of the dark call on god angels and ancestors when shit gets 0.88

00:14:44.120 tight we are round full figured full of ourselves water we bathe in basil and sea salt we're shackled 0.61

00:14:54.900 but jump ship anyway sharks fed on our flesh we are ocean now you eat us unknowingly thinking you

00:15:01.280 can drink us in believing you can suck us dry and quiet our storms but we are oya we are maat

00:15:08.920 settling accounts shifting you can't box us in pin us down or tell our story fire we eat men whole

00:15:18.560 when given the chance burn sage incense candles tools of the trade dance under moons full we are

00:15:24.460 loud alive stretch things out to fit our shape you itch to see us put in our place we are witch

00:15:31.000 wise woman and crone burned at the stake air but we are immortal reincarnated in the poems of our

00:15:40.960 daughters we are phoenix eyes in the back of our head we are sankofa bird live betwixt worlds

00:15:47.320 float through walls that you build around us blowing cigar smoke in your face we are juke

00:15:52.400 joint speak out of both sides of our mouth see your future in eggshells it's not looking good

00:15:57.600 for you. Familiars at our side, we tag Miami, Haiti, and New Orleans with chalk circles, drink with

00:16:03.960 legba at the crossroads, walk on water masquerading as poet, artist, and mama. We eat too many carbs,

00:16:12.560 fall in love with men who are afraid to love us back, and turn our crooked noses up at your

00:16:17.880 traditions. Jazz, poetry, Sade are our religions. We are Black Cat Crossing Your Path, that poem you

00:16:26.880 wish you were smart enough to write the rhyme you're too afraid to spit fucking up the mood 0.99

00:16:31.380 we are the ejaculation that comes too quickly gas on a crowded elevator the uninvited party 0.99

00:16:36.800 guests flirting with your boyfriend and eating all your food an inconvenient truth we are those 0.93

00:16:41.560 shoes you can't afford to buy that thing you hate but can't let go those pants that are too tight

00:16:46.540 around your waist now the song that keeps playing in your head that chick you know you're not good

00:16:51.540 enough to bang the one your mama warned you about we are trouble urban sprawl haunting your daydreams

00:16:57.960 we are muse inspiring you to get your game up teaching by example we are root worker

00:17:04.020 obia lady and conjure woman the scary broad living at the end of the road alone 0.99

00:17:09.480 glamoring you through forked tongues we work miracles and yes motherfucker we do 1.00

00:17:14.140 ride on brooms you should be afraid of women like us chastity belted we fuck anyway do what we want 1.00

00:17:23.060 to do walk butt naked in the daytime and come to you at night carrying blessings and justice 1.00

00:17:29.380 in our left hand machete and curses in our right thank you

00:17:35.660 my name's kenneth i go by a marble fawn on instagram this is a poem i wrote about words

00:17:44.520 but i guess it's also about home and where we belong why aren't there words everywhere

00:17:50.880 why don't our thoughts our quotes that cradle us our favorite novels of fact and fiction show up

00:17:57.540 in yards and sidewalks the sides of buildings on napkins waste bins in paint on floors

00:18:04.440 yes there are some but i want more where are the words i can see letters written on a seashell

00:18:13.280 half buried in the sand it'll be cursive and it will say i was at home once remember this

00:18:20.460 on the street i live in bright gold would be letters maybe these words on my street will say

00:18:26.880 this is your street unlike any other because you are here or you've traveled long and hard

00:18:35.240 welcome home where are the words we need signs that don't just say where to go or how to travel

00:18:43.100 and the rules to do it by or even just the names of streets or stores what if we had other signs

00:18:50.020 small and large, hidden and so very visible. I want more and more. Where are the words?

00:18:59.100 Words to make us stop and think, smile and feel gratitude. Signs like, this is a great place to

00:19:06.000 cry. Here is where so many have laughed. This is the best view of the beach. This is where I was

00:19:13.060 loved and even simply this tree is my friend where are the words names are important but i still ache

00:19:22.320 for more i want a world where we are all writers and our words fall around us like raindrops i want

00:19:29.700 messages and bottles to explode open their letters for all to see shimmering in the air mingling with

00:19:35.740 our thoughts before the breeze takes them away. Where are the words? Words are stories and spells.

00:19:43.720 To share them and hear them is a real gift. I can see this world, where we exchange our thoughts

00:19:50.320 and feelings openly because we write them among the world. We would be held safely by all the

00:19:55.660 language around us. This, to me, would be closer to feeling free. Where are the words? Where are

00:20:04.460 words where are the words hello missing witches coven my name is eveline and this is my poem

00:20:14.300 house of secrets i wander through a house of secrets constantly balancing on a tight rope of

00:20:21.420 decisions should i tell her this how do i best explain that what do i just keep to myself

00:20:29.980 what will she understand and what will set her off into an obsessive cycle what is mine to decide 0.91

00:20:38.380 to hold i constantly fuck it up there are no guidebooks here she is my mother and yet i am 0.96

00:20:46.780 hers this now forever child who will grow old but not grow independent who cannot be released out 0.98

00:20:55.480 onto the world but need sheltering from it. I wander through a house of secrets

00:21:01.640 trying to keep the door of our hearts open.

00:21:07.440 Hi, my name is Alison Shaw and today I'm reading for you a pantoum which is a form poem

00:21:14.580 that has repeating lines that become quite incantatory. I really love this form. It's

00:21:22.940 very witchy and spell-like to me. This poem is called Moon Pantum. I declare this my symbol,

00:21:34.280 one-eyed, wild, and illustrious in her shadowy nectar and storm. One-eyed, wild, waxing gibbous

00:21:42.360 in her shadowy nectar and storm. She wears a clouded fringe, waxing gibbous, shifting names,

00:21:49.940 wolf to hunter to worm she wears a clouded fringe gold rimmed shifting names wolf to hunter to worm

00:22:00.280 i declare this my symbol gold rimmed and illustrious

00:22:05.660 hello folks my name is jasmine my pronouns are she her i'm an educator researcher and

00:22:14.060 neurodivergent witch and community member. This is my poem, and it doesn't have a title,

00:22:22.700 so perhaps yourselves or your listeners can come up with a title for it. I'm not good at titles.

00:22:29.180 It seems too final, and I feel like poetry is always living, breathing, moving, changing.

00:22:36.840 so this is my little witchy poem for you which is a verb an action a practice a spell an intention

00:22:50.640 a way of life which is a verb polarizing yet non-binary at its core the witch is god etc

00:23:03.720 In all of its forms 0.98

00:23:06.480 A child of chaos

00:23:09.120 Perfectly happy

00:23:10.980 To swim against the current

00:23:14.140 Which is a verb

00:23:16.900 And it is a fine way

00:23:19.120 To live a life

00:23:21.060 Thank you

00:23:23.340 Keep doing what you're doing 0.98

00:23:25.100 And blessed fucking be 0.99

00:23:27.520 Hello 0.99

00:23:29.640 I can't believe that I'm sending this to you

00:23:32.940 I love you so much

00:23:35.180 both of you and everyone in the coven

00:23:37.600 oh my goodness

00:23:38.500 my name is

00:23:41.060 Liana Lupashku

00:23:42.260 I'm sitting on

00:23:45.080 Noongar country in the

00:23:47.060 southwest of the Australian continent

00:23:48.920 and I just

00:23:50.720 my heart is bursting to share this poem

00:23:53.220 with you

00:23:53.740 I am an animal 0.59

00:23:57.580 an animal that you cloaked in human 1.00

00:24:01.140 skins 0.99

00:24:01.780 you told me that I am separate from the trees

00:24:06.180 the trees I have known as home

00:24:09.500 as branches that my hands have learned to flip through

00:24:13.900 to feel as paper

00:24:16.260 paper that I have learned to read your language on

00:24:20.180 but now I want to go back to the trees

00:24:24.160 to relearn their language

00:24:26.660 to relearn their history in my animal lineage

00:24:30.900 I am not separate. Give me back to the trees. Put my back against tree and my hands against home.

00:24:42.160 I want to return to my animal. Back to my wisdom. Back to my roots.

00:24:49.840 Hi, this is Kate Ballou and this is Go Now. No one is looking.

00:24:53.820 i left the gate open and walked past the waving tree there was no wind just folklore from the

00:25:02.800 family we stood at that tree to wave goodbye this is how it always starts with a death a holiday

00:25:11.160 the calendar peeled back again like potatoes i created a world from it or rather a world created

00:25:18.940 me. I never knew to sew but stitched it carefully. I knew death had been there by the way the moon

00:25:26.180 stared. When we leave our childhoods, we don't say goodbye. They live on, in the woods, behind where

00:25:34.560 we grew up, like wolves. When people ask me if I'm a witch, I tell them that another name for

00:25:41.280 moonflower is trumpet. I am turning over a major arcana card of myself, so who's to say that myth

00:25:50.220 isn't created as we go? Call this a midwestern myth. My muses are fields of corn, crows, being

00:25:59.140 forgotten. The past turns farther and wider behind like the elbow of the river. When I clear the field

00:26:06.660 beyond that gate there is just stars a doe and my memory whatever is past now I tell myself

00:26:13.920 was either willing or a tithe and that holds it all I kneel at the basin of moon the same one

00:26:21.260 that I caught staring and I swear I can see myself decades younger holding a frog between

00:26:28.120 my hands whispering go now no one is looking

00:26:36.660 This is Molly McKinney.

00:26:42.780 Birthed, fetal and bloody, I wake up and I'm different, but my skin is the same.

00:26:51.540 When I look in the mirror, I feel the glowing, exhausted, renewed, new hands exploring new

00:26:59.900 material of myself new brain pathways new thoughts that set my chakras light my feet are roots my

00:27:11.380 pelvis is rooted this being i am coming into existence form becoming coalescing atoms gathering

00:27:22.020 and greeting one another in a new kind of solidarity and function.

00:27:27.480 I am all I was and all I am going to be.

00:27:35.160 My name is Sarah Ellen Fowler, and this is an untitled poem dedicated to Agnes Martin.

00:27:46.000 The horizon measures itself in stillness.

00:27:49.860 the fennels coming through in the dark linseed oil carries on the draft from the unscreened

00:27:58.600 window west-facing little message of trust my canvases feign shudder in the temperature

00:28:07.800 like a horse's rippling will i believe in the horizon only oh let me behold in it

00:28:16.840 a mixed pulse, a wash of

00:28:20.620 I take the pills, a silent dress circle

00:28:24.780 of what care I need to keep painting here

00:28:28.240 the coffee's ready

00:28:31.000 and my lonelinesses fess no milk but patience

00:28:36.160 for the white-throated swift will call across the sagebrush

00:28:40.860 I am listening with my skin for her

00:28:44.460 were it my steady line gathering definition in the morning purple gray and gratitude its own

00:28:54.460 prism we could sit the hour and watch your light break the face of the high desert

00:29:01.800 hello my name is nikki hudson and uh this is my poem wolf that runs inside me

00:29:15.520 teeth like kisses body feral pungent with the scent of forests and full of hunger

00:29:24.660 at the edge of the city we howled calling to our sisters I am here still howling for those whose

00:29:35.660 voices vanished my own moon whole enough now to illuminate us all know this the pack is patient

00:29:46.740 When you find your wild cry, we will answer you

00:29:51.600 With music in our mouths and wind in our hair

00:29:55.940 You will run with us and we will write the story together

00:30:01.880 Of the women who howled the pain away

00:30:06.200 Grew pelts of musky magic 1.00

00:30:09.520 And pulled power from the moon

00:30:13.200 Thank you

00:30:16.740 I came into this world, bloody and bruised, choking on my creatrix flesh.

00:30:26.120 Being gripped by the hands of man, I couldn't cry out, and it burned into me.

00:30:33.620 Body betrayed, I was too delicious, then not enough, and I wouldn't cry out.

00:30:41.800 Spirit ignited before the foreign voice took complete control.

00:30:45.900 she stood up and never let go inside me they grew from birth they smelled of love

00:30:55.160 so I ate them up monstrous I became wild and fat taking up space with endless loud whispers

00:31:06.440 this is by sarah webster this is sun hesper jansen from madison wisconsin i'm a word witch

00:31:19.500 poet and novelist working in dark fiction high fantasy and magical realism and i also blog as

00:31:26.820 literary therapy for multiple sclerosis at the fairy of disenchantment on wordpress

00:31:31.660 Here's a small spell inspired by a recent episode of Missing Witches

00:31:37.320 Casting a circle of your own salt

00:31:40.660 With tears, I release you

00:31:45.820 With tears, I gather you

00:31:49.640 The salt of my body shapes the good to come

00:31:55.920 Hey there, my name is Emerson

00:31:59.080 and I'm going to be reading a poem that I wrote called When I Listened to Mud.

00:32:06.780 When I listened to mud, I found it had more to say than the people walking around it.

00:32:14.400 It was softer than the dirt, but not snow. There was strength in its buoyancy to hold this body.

00:32:21.700 The mud clung to the back of my pants, a talisman to carry from this hike.

00:32:26.100 healing isn't about perfection the mud whispered perfection minimalistic modernism designing this 0.98

00:32:36.060 church for the post-religious liberalist ableist feminist skinny white enjoys I may destroy you 1.00

00:32:44.940 for the art of it all girl boss on Adderall colonized filter of oppression that's been 0.98

00:32:50.880 corroding my soul, my body, my mind, our souls, our bodies, our minds. I saw people jumping to

00:33:01.600 prevent their hiking shoes from the mud. Was this out of fear or delusion of superiority? For there

00:33:09.000 seemed to be greater capacity to expand within this collision of elements than the people not

00:33:17.460 paying attention mud followed me and asked can you see beyond the binary go farther where you

00:33:25.540 hear me too echoing from the lands that have been drilled without consent begging to have space to

00:33:33.060 heal from this abuse do you remember do you remember when this land was as sacred as the

00:33:40.100 relationship it has with truth healing below tundra and trees where the roots go deep asking

00:33:48.600 us to join the healing table community here come the birds here come our neighborhood plants

00:33:56.300 time is shifting here make friends with mud and nutrients and excavation for our healing journeys

00:34:04.600 are made of decomposition i thanked the mud for sharing this wisdom and reminder that perfectionism

00:34:12.500 comes from oppression we are nothing more than the dirt that sets us free hi my name is lisa

00:34:21.580 Robertson, and I'd like to share this poem of mine, entitled Growth.

00:34:32.660 Pain, raging thunder through my heart, aching numbness draining me, heavy clouds bearing

00:34:42.100 down, silence but for my screaming womb and soul, so deep I am dying from within.

00:34:51.580 Take from me this darkness, it rains.

00:34:55.000 I can't bear this torture any more.

00:34:58.380 Break me completely like smashed open urn,

00:35:02.200 so light may enter to banish the dark.

00:35:06.680 Sealing cracks of destruction with golden touch,

00:35:10.240 encasing the light within me.

00:35:13.140 Warming my coldness, livening my strength,

00:35:17.740 my heartbeat in tune with my drum.

00:35:19.960 Pain, I know you

00:35:22.800 Healing you bring 1.00

00:35:24.720 Your guise a lesson to grow

00:35:27.220 A friend, not foe

00:35:31.140 Brighter I am now

00:35:33.000 Strength within me

00:35:35.220 Able to balance serene

00:35:38.880 Pain, a treasure that buries deep

00:35:42.820 Heart, the chest holding treasure revealed

00:35:47.000 Brighter the stars above now

00:35:50.160 Deeper the roots

00:35:52.400 Like oak holding firm

00:35:54.640 More magnificent the bloom

00:35:57.100 Left here and now

00:35:58.400 Versions of these poems

00:36:03.220 Were originally published

00:36:04.920 In the New Earth Almanac

00:36:06.880 www.newearthalmanac.com

00:36:13.120 This is Birdie Todd

00:36:16.340 in Nashville, Tennessee.

00:36:20.380 My sorrow is a mermaid.

00:36:25.180 My sorrow is a mermaid.

00:36:28.220 In the swirl she takes my hand

00:36:30.400 and together we move into the flow

00:36:33.300 going deeper and deeper

00:36:35.620 and deeper and deeper.

00:36:40.080 It is dark with no stars to light the way.

00:36:43.740 It is darker than the night.

00:36:46.340 The inky blackness is all I can see surrounding me

00:36:50.920 It's claustrophobic

00:36:53.160 The deeper we go, the more slowly I move

00:36:57.620 The water feels thick

00:36:59.940 I am cold to my bones

00:37:03.800 I am aware of her

00:37:07.340 She's guiding me

00:37:09.820 I am passive, numb

00:37:14.040 i feel her hair across my face at times which startles me and memories flash like a film strip

00:37:25.020 in my head searing through my mind i squeeze my eyes shut bracing against the pain

00:37:32.980 oh my body convulses just heaving i drop her hand i'm thrashing around lost which way is

00:37:43.760 up or down? Which way do I really want to go? She reaches for me and finds my hands.

00:37:55.600 I'm confused. I resist. We struggle. Is she holding me here, helping me out? Enough.

00:38:05.560 I'm drowning.

00:38:07.460 I am drowning.

00:38:12.360 Feeling helpless, I stop struggling.

00:38:16.260 I find I move with her instead of against her.

00:38:21.220 And we are floating.

00:38:23.640 I have a sense of timelessness.

00:38:26.760 I feel her hair brushing against my shoulder.

00:38:30.020 And the memories come again.

00:38:31.560 In my mind's eye, I meet the memory with curiosity

00:38:37.960 I see you

00:38:41.140 I honor you

00:38:43.980 I release you

00:38:47.620 I feel tears rising and pushing against my lids

00:38:53.140 A deep ache in my chest

00:38:56.980 When I open my eyes, I see a bubble rising and I look up

00:39:02.660 I see the sunlight through the surface shooting sparkles into the water

00:39:07.500 The mermaid is by my side, her hair flowing wildly, surrounding us

00:39:13.880 We are ascending, slowly, safely, surely

00:39:21.620 I feel lost for those I miss

00:39:26.620 and connection when I remember them.

00:39:29.980 When we close our heart to pain,

00:39:32.500 we also close it to love.

00:39:35.520 Experiencing my grief is healing me

00:39:37.700 by allowing myself to move through the waves of emotions

00:39:41.660 as they rise and dissolve.

00:39:44.520 Grief is opening me to love

00:39:46.400 because grief is love.

00:39:50.920 Her hair is so beautiful.

00:39:53.320 the sparkles so lovely and the light so welcoming hi my name is Alyssa I am new to witchery and this

00:40:05.760 is a poem that I wrote a flower blooming a baby's cry the magic growing the tide is high

00:40:12.880 a cauldron brewing the healer is near her time for doing is finally here to reclaim her voice

00:40:20.660 and let out great cheer. We are the witches. We need not fear. So Callie, how is poetry akin to

00:40:29.700 witchcraft? And I mean this both as a producer and a consumer. How is writing poetry witchcraft

00:40:37.000 and how is reading poetry witchcraft? I love the two-part question. Oh, I love specificity.

00:40:45.480 writing a poem when we're doing it with that honesty you know it is a it is a form

00:40:55.000 as in it has a way of being we can call an emotion up to the surface and we can

00:41:04.600 exercise it, you know, whether that's to give it an anchor and more power, or it's to release.

00:41:17.500 I think it's all about the intention as any spell is, you know, we can, we can use affirmations to

00:41:24.540 really embolden something in our lives. And we can think about the ways that really scientifically

00:41:31.820 affects us. You know, we create neural pathways all the time. So repeating things over and over

00:41:36.900 again, especially when we're in a heightened state actually makes our brains work in that

00:41:41.320 direction more effectively. Right. So there's that. And then there's, you know, the body keeps

00:41:51.800 the score by Bessel van der Kolk is trending yet again, many, many, many years after its first

00:41:58.380 publication. And we're all very aware that our bodies hold trauma. And the way that we get that

00:42:06.020 trauma out is we get it out. So my therapist calls it compassionate depossession where you identify

00:42:15.060 something that isn't yours. And, you know, when they have done it with me before, we've only done

00:42:21.560 at one time and I identified part of my panic disorder as this little, really beautiful golden

00:42:28.360 snail that was living in my chest cavity. And it didn't belong to me, but through this process of

00:42:36.600 active imagination work, again, I saw that the reason that I had it was because we were really

00:42:43.280 protecting each other. There was a lot of loneliness there. And by seeing it and calling

00:42:49.400 it's, you know, loving family forward to hold it. Obviously this is metaphorical and everything,

00:42:57.280 but this is what was happening in my mind at the same time with my therapist.

00:43:02.060 I was able to let go of that. And that doesn't mean that I cured my panic disorder, but it does

00:43:09.640 mean that I made more positive connections in that way. And I was able to release, you know,

00:43:13.660 just a little bit of the hold that it had. And we have to do that over and over again. So

00:43:18.360 So poetry is one way of expressing ourselves. And if we have a tool, why not use it? It doesn't

00:43:27.120 have to be good. It doesn't have to rhyme. It doesn't have to ever even be read by another

00:43:31.840 person, unless that's part of the magic you want. We can just consider our emotions creatively

00:43:38.100 and let them come into the world in a way that we view as beautiful because it honors them.

00:43:45.540 and it is allowing ourselves to be seen by ourselves which is the most important audience

00:43:51.960 yes allowing yourself to be seen by yourself I love that and I love like you were talking about

00:44:03.680 the sort of new age appropriation of terms like you know affirmation and you know we hate that

00:44:13.260 but you also talked about like the the scientific fact of affirmation which is like when we repeat

00:44:21.180 things they create neural pathways in our brains yeah and we human beings regardless of this

00:44:28.640 disenchanted world that we live in we are symbolic creatures we live inside of metaphors

00:44:35.380 and I feel like poetry helps us to sort of reconcile you know that that part of us that

00:44:44.060 that is a metaphor absolutely and I think that that ties in to paganism quite a bit and it's

00:44:52.720 not that every witch is a pagan but a whole lot of us are and I I think that paganism can be

00:45:00.440 described a lot of ways obviously it's earth-based worship but I think a lot of that is just an

00:45:06.360 enchantment with being alive being an alive thing and not viewing ourselves as separate from the

00:45:13.060 universe but part of it and I think that's also where a lot of the magic of being a reader of

00:45:18.440 poetry comes in so we often get caught up in the lie that we are separate and obviously

00:45:28.520 individuality and identity is so important and in our western world we have really divorced

00:45:36.600 ourselves from the idea of the collective and being in touch with the spirit of the earth of

00:45:45.260 being alive of our homes of everything yeah we've become so disenchanted and i think poetry is one

00:45:56.480 lens that can help us view the world from somebody else's eyes you know it is sort of invoking

00:46:04.760 another person to really truly witness their creative work because creativity

00:46:09.860 is the spirit of the universe right like everything is based in creativity so when we're

00:46:18.600 engaging with it it's so sacred that is going to church creativity is the essence of the universe

00:46:24.060 You know, Buffy St. Marie said something similar, like, you know, if we are to believe that we were created by a creator, then that means that creativity is an essential part of our being.

00:46:38.320 Yeah.

00:46:39.000 Yeah.

00:46:39.600 Let's hear some creativity from some other listeners, shall we?

00:46:42.960 Yes, please.

00:46:45.400 Hi, this is Courtney.

00:46:47.560 And I am a poet.

00:46:48.840 It is not how I earn my income.

00:46:54.060 but it is how I live and how I view and experience and sense and splash around in all of life.

00:47:10.780 Poetry is tucked inside me, and it comes out, and I am part of that process,

00:47:22.100 but it is not exclusively of my doing.

00:47:27.140 I claim poet for the gift it has given me.

00:47:34.480 Enjoy.

00:47:36.520 This is called Growing Up.

00:47:39.420 How could I know what I will do?

00:47:42.880 She timidly wondered in silence.

00:47:46.460 My experiences are few and the world so vast

00:47:51.820 great is the pressure i do not feel led the blessing inside you time it is not to emerge

00:48:03.380 your heart binding it up in protection from voices unaligned with your own

00:48:11.400 you reveal the first to announce it will not be but i assure you of its presence and it

00:48:21.400 is worth the wait. This is called Where Am I? This place where I stand, a place of rich content

00:48:32.960 and alas, peace. So few could understand. I outstretch my arms and breathe. These arms

00:48:45.580 I have yet carried so much for so long.

00:48:51.420 The burden increasingly heavy.

00:48:55.800 I am now stronger.

00:48:58.240 I wonder how these arms will now serve.

00:49:02.420 I long to simply let them be at my side, at rest.

00:49:08.880 I am both empty and invigorated.

00:49:11.680 I am both lonely yet in love, perhaps in love with what new possibility there may be, perhaps in love with a lighter heart.

00:49:27.160 My heart, it is depleted and yet filled with great weight.

00:49:34.680 I do not know yet of tomorrow

00:49:38.460 For I do not recall

00:49:41.340 The last time

00:49:43.440 I felt today

00:49:46.260 I'm Angela Maria Spring

00:49:50.020 A little bit about me

00:49:51.420 I'm the owner of Duende District

00:49:53.360 A mobile boutique bookstore for and by people of color

00:49:56.440 Where all are welcome

00:49:57.440 And I'm the poetry editor at the Washington Independent Review of Books

00:50:01.700 And you can find my most recent poetry and essays and reviews in a public space, the

00:50:09.000 Slowdown podcast, Electric Literature, Catapult, Lit Hub, and Tor.com.

00:50:15.260 And today I am reading you one of my poems called The Empress.

00:50:21.500 The Empress, December 31st, 2020.

00:50:26.300 Today, we break the eggs into clear water. Today, I break the egg into me. At the table alongside my mother, my own womb, which broke open in the small hours of the cold moon, now sings to Atta Bay in darkest ruby.

00:50:46.940 portents culled from love as we seek to reclaim ancestral magic once lost in the forever fog

00:50:55.980 of our needle spiked family lines yokes slip light from our cracked shells settle heavy at

00:51:04.280 the bottom bowl of each round wine glass somewhere ghosts of our grandmother's grandmother's hands

00:51:12.540 close over hours la curandera instructs her family's ways says this ritual is from central

00:51:20.400 america and we pray stir our own dormant blood clockwise even further caribbean islands winds

00:51:29.540 whisper our names we place vessels in a dim cabinet hours to go when they are ready it will

00:51:38.420 be a new year. When we are ready, we will swell to mourning doves. Hi, I'm Laura Spaulding, a fat,

00:51:50.640 queer, disabled, non-binary witch living in western Massachusetts. I spend my days writing 0.85

00:51:58.060 poetry and prose, going on forage walks, crocheting and doing freestyle embroidery,

00:52:03.600 three-season open water swimming, reading, trying to whittle and fiddle, and advocating for super

00:52:12.920 fat, neurodivergent, and low-income folks like myself. I am a very goofy hermit, a porch dweller, 0.80

00:52:20.940 and a constant wonder seeker. Fat magic cannot be pushed down, doesn't drown. 0.82

00:52:33.140 Stealth disguised by colors, patterns, layers of art. Expansive canvases we use

00:52:41.320 to distract and destroy. She will surprise you, sleeves rolled up over fat 0.90

00:52:47.700 arms over muscle and will. You lose because you assume. These bodies, uncovered, can do things you

00:52:56.420 will never see. If you should have the good fortune and trust, pick it up. This belly hangs

00:53:04.160 soft in the sunlight, not for you, even if you are invited to witness, but for ourselves, to soak up

00:53:12.520 spirit in the immense battery of our bodies, our glorious fat bodies, existing, meeting, surviving,

00:53:22.840 thriving, together. Brilliant planets, lush foliage, mysteries in every fold, glittering,

00:53:33.080 golden abundance, breasts and bellies floating, naturally facing the sky, body held buoyant

00:53:42.120 beyond your belief.

00:53:47.640 Hi, my name is Lisa. I am speaking to you from under the big fir tree that I wrote about in my

00:53:54.680 poem. I am a settler and immigrant descended white woman working in my own ways to understand my

00:54:06.000 actual culture and where my place is in this world and a lot of that happens on the land that I live

00:54:15.320 on and in my art practice and in my own independent spiritual practice which probably looks like

00:54:24.560 witchery to anybody that peeks in on me. And I'm an artist, I'm a mother, I'm a gardener,

00:54:33.800 figuring things out. And sometimes I write poems too. I hope you like it.

00:54:43.300 This old fur, lightning struck and well-winded, weighted, heavy and hanging with snow, still

00:54:52.100 standing. I step under the lowest branches into a temple. Up in the rafters a tangle, damage done,

00:55:01.220 danger dangling. Hold yourself together to keep us safe, I ask the tree, to hold tight her lost

00:55:08.340 limbs. Keep these aloft, because we are here, down below, seeking shelter, collecting dripped

00:55:15.220 pitch into the bowl of a cold stone leaning long and solemn soothed and praying against this trunk

00:55:25.020 which has swayed stretched cleaved and crusted since a hundred years before i was born

00:55:32.480 my fingers cold i pluck resin from where it escapes these many wounds

00:55:40.940 so Callie Amy what advice do you have and I've encountered so many of these people

00:55:51.440 who are aspiring poets but are either scared or they're blocked or there's something between

00:56:00.620 them the pen and the paper or them and the keyboard and the screen there's just something

00:56:07.840 there. What advice can you give to our listeners who are currently kicking themselves because they

00:56:13.140 wanted to submit a poem, but then they didn't because they were scared. And now they're like,

00:56:18.420 oh, I could have been on this episode, but I'm not. I was blocked. Can you help us all get out

00:56:23.820 of that mindset? I hope I can help. Yeah. Okay. I hear you. I hear that it is scary

00:56:33.480 to let yourself be seen and to risk somebody saying that's not good enough

00:56:40.240 and first i want to remind you as i remind my clients all the time

00:56:47.780 the most likely reaction your clients you're also a therapist

00:56:53.820 i am an emotional support witch that's what i call myself

00:57:00.700 so I'm a coach and a counselor not a therapist because I didn't feel like going into six

00:57:10.540 digits of debt but an emotional support which is like a title that I think fits you

00:57:17.020 beautifully so you tell your clients all the time thank you I tell my clients all the time that the

00:57:23.660 most likely reaction someone will have to not liking your work is that they will look at it

00:57:28.660 and move on and never think about it again. The rare, rare person who types out, LOL,

00:57:37.300 you're so stupid. I will tell you from experience, it is so easy to be like, oh my God, you have 1.00

00:57:44.080 nothing joyful in your life. That is horrible. I'm so sorry. Your life is so sad. And like,

00:57:52.140 not to say they never get under my skin, but it's really rare for people to actually tell you they 1.00

00:57:59.400 just like hate you and your stupid words, you know? And I mean, I've shared work about 1.00

00:58:05.540 my abusive dead mother, right? Like really, really personal work. And I was really afraid

00:58:13.720 when I first published that because I published it with Bust Magazine.

00:58:17.160 and what I actually found and what I hope you will take away from this story is I got and I

00:58:26.180 still get I mean hundreds of emails from people saying I've never heard my story told by somebody

00:58:32.480 else I never had words for this before and you said it and I didn't know that I had all this

00:58:42.920 community out in the world to, to know that I was able to tell a story that maybe somebody

00:58:50.400 didn't feel empowered to tell. So powerful, so beautiful. And I will tell you that is my favorite

00:59:00.860 drug that high is the best. And you can't get that without that risk. That being said,

00:59:08.460 i will share a very compassionate and spicy opinion um which is that i do not believe in

00:59:15.120 creative block and the reason is i think it's just a cute nickname for fear

00:59:24.460 you look very oh yeah sorry listeners i'm like my mouth is agape i'm nodding my eyes are wide

00:59:34.640 yes yes I think that the idea of block is saying well that wouldn't be good enough and that wouldn't

00:59:43.840 be good enough it's not that you don't have ideas it's that you keep being really mean to yourself

00:59:49.720 so stop like that's a really easy direction just stop being mean to yourself and just write the 0.98

00:59:59.840 damn thing so what if the first page of you writing is I hate writing I suck at this why am I doing 1.00

01:00:05.920 this this is stupid my hand hurts it's like the the hose you gotta run the hose yeah the shit 1.00

01:00:11.720 nozzle the proper terminology yeah that's the scientific term you just gotta run it for a bit 1.00

01:00:19.620 you do and that is something that Julia Cameron points out in the artist's way as well she doesn't

01:00:26.600 call it a shit nozzle, but she says that, you know, one of the reasons that you do the morning 0.84

01:00:32.560 pages is just to be in the habit of writing and to not indulge that very honestly ego-driven part 0.99

01:00:39.980 of ourselves that is like, I'm not inspired. The muse has not visited me. Like the muse is you.

01:00:47.840 so if you ignore yourself of course the muse is not going to show up why would you energetically

01:00:57.360 show up when you keep ignoring yourself you feel empty of course you do

01:01:02.040 sit in sacred silence with yourself for a minute 0.85

01:01:06.640 i love your face amy that's what i'm like i'm like a terrible liar and like

01:01:16.580 because my face just betrays betrays anything that I might want to keep hidden yeah I'm just

01:01:23.880 so excited by this like I've always said like I don't believe in laziness as much as I believe in

01:01:30.340 anxiety and exhaustion yes and to me this is kind of the same thing like you don't believe in

01:01:37.200 writer's block you believe in fear and period fear period yeah and and you know you can ask

01:01:45.740 yourself whose voice is this saying you can't write anything yes I spoke to um uh Judy Grain

01:01:52.760 who's like a woman in her 80s at this point been an activist since the 1960s still writing

01:01:58.160 still producing I asked her about imposter syndrome and she said something so funny to me

01:02:05.940 she was like oh I get that voice in my head sometimes and I ask it how many books have you 0.98

01:02:11.000 written so you can get real shitty with that voice if you want to oh yeah how many fucking 0.97

01:02:21.920 poems have you written in her voice yeah our judgment tends to be a lot less informed than we 0.99

01:02:28.820 are. So quotable. Look at the bumper sticker edition. Wow. I love being quoted by you. I feel

01:02:40.560 so flattered the whole time we're talking. Go ahead. I was just going to say, it's true.

01:02:49.400 Yeah, it's true. Let's hear some more truth from some more listeners. Yes.

01:02:53.600 two of the pieces i'm submitting multiple pieces so choose any or none uh two of the pieces rhyme

01:03:02.120 and i am not a rhyming poet not to poo poo rhyming poetry but that's just not my go-to

01:03:09.280 form of expression yet the more i read on this journey of becoming a witch and being magical

01:03:16.280 and all of that you know um a lot of spells and incantations rhyme and there's so much about

01:03:22.400 you know linking rhyming with memory and a sing-songy quality and how that has to do with

01:03:30.180 memory and how it sort of gets you in a certain state so for as much as um I don't know how much

01:03:37.540 that fits me it's uh sort of my go-to right now in some ways um so those are a lot of caveats I

01:03:49.300 I tried not to explain my poems, but I probably will end up doing so.

01:03:55.680 Okay, so this first item that I'm offering is actually, I call it Candle Spell.

01:04:05.360 And in one of my other women's spirituality groups, someone wrote a poem and they were

01:04:11.500 like, oh, well, you know, you're a real poet, so I don't know if you would think this would

01:04:15.080 count or if it's a poem or it's a prayer.

01:04:16.640 And I was like, you know, don't first of all, don't look at me as the voice of authority. And two, I think poetry and prayer and spells, they all, you know, they all grow from the same ground or flow in the same river or float in the same air or, you know, burn in the same fire if we're going to be elemental about it, or are pulled from, you know, the ether in the same way.

01:04:45.560 So this is a candle spell. I've used it. Whether it's a spell or a prayer, I call it candle spell.

01:04:59.200 Okay. And that was my cat who wants to be included in all things as he must. Okay.

01:05:04.760 candle spell thank you for fire thank you for light thank you for candles that make life

01:05:15.380 bright thank you for heat thank you for flame thank you for making no candle the same

01:05:23.980 thank you for cotton thank you for wick thank you for making these flaming sticks

01:05:32.280 thank you for darkness thank you for night thank you for candles that brighten our sight

01:05:41.520 thank you for candles that darkness dispel thank you divine for this candle spell

01:05:53.220 um so yeah there are some perhaps some logical things that might need to be fixed but

01:06:03.040 that was when I was first feeling I don't know had some witchy sterns last year and I was going

01:06:08.680 to try my hand at writing a rhyming spell um so I've used it you know it's more like um something

01:06:15.940 to center than you know calling on the elements to transmute but um you know part of rituals have

01:06:23.200 to do with expressing gratitude and I really don't know how much what's the difference between

01:06:29.280 my the magic that I do and praying um they're very similar

01:06:36.680 okay this next one is called she stirs

01:06:43.680 um as much as it's called anything

01:06:48.460 she stirs her potions in pots feeling familiar with her familiar

01:06:56.200 a magical life she makes under moonlight savors in sunlight

01:07:03.020 guarding her cauldron and keeping it warm adhering to the edict to do no harm

01:07:10.960 with every action she cast a spell of enchantment love and life lived well

01:07:21.560 beneath the cone of her witch's hat the aether crackles with this and that 0.51

01:07:29.460 not eyes of toad or wool of bat but the will of a woman who won't lay flat

01:07:36.820 when men circumstance and the world say so she grabs her broom and tells them no 0.57

01:07:44.060 she sweeps negativity and bids it go she sees misogyny as her foe

01:07:50.900 each time she says blessed be she's a witch she's a woman she is me

01:07:59.520 so that little rhyming poem or what devolved into a rhyming poem because it didn't begin

01:08:11.280 as a rhyming poem um touches on something that the next piece which is a prose poem

01:08:17.560 um will elaborate on and that is for me um I still I revel in and associate uh the association

01:08:29.020 of the the classical witch in the cottage with the pointed hat and and the broom and the black

01:08:36.360 dress and the still room and the herbs you know all of that um you know that that just resonates

01:08:44.280 with me. I find it so charming and it touches back to my childhood. And I think maybe all of

01:08:50.380 our childhoods when, you know, that was the, probably the first notion of, of witchiness

01:08:58.360 that, that we were introduced to. And for me, I never found it scary. I was always excited by it

01:09:04.100 and titillated by it and fascinated by it because obviously all these years later, it, it spoke to

01:09:10.640 me at some level then and um and I'm reconnecting with that now um so you know the notion of the

01:09:18.100 witch's hat and the broom and and the rhyming sing-songy quality um harkens to my um journey

01:09:26.940 and being a part of this coven has um you know made me open up to a lot more and beyond that

01:09:34.340 Of course, I'm a grown woman, but there's still that, you know, the girl, Fleur, who was so charmed by that.

01:09:45.020 And I remain charmed by that.

01:09:47.380 And I think whenever I devolve into rhyming in this type of writing, you know, in a witchy way, I'm calling on that version of myself.

01:10:01.240 Okay, so this is my final piece that I'm offering up, tentatively titled, as much as these have a title, a declaration.

01:10:12.680 Magic exists. I am magic. Witches exist. I am a witch.

01:10:20.980 ever since i can remember i believed in magic in santa claus and the tooth fairy

01:10:28.380 the easter bunny magical fantasy lands you name it

01:10:32.980 neverland was my home away from home the silhouette of big ben below me and the second

01:10:41.460 star to the right ahead of me signaled that i was about to leave this mundane world behind

01:10:47.860 with its headaches and homework and math problems and mean kids in the schoolyard.

01:10:55.420 I'd be a kid forever, roaming and roguing with the lost boys and tink,

01:11:00.620 flying, capering, telling stories, and trading thimbles for kisses.

01:11:06.920 But like Wendy, I grew up.

01:11:10.320 I grew up with the memory of Neverland in my heart, plus a stray white rabbit or two.

01:11:17.860 The stars called to me.

01:11:20.720 I clapped for the fairies I still believed in, wanted to believe in. 0.65

01:11:26.840 In place of Peter's puckish silhouette, I saw the outline of a lover. 0.68

01:11:32.200 A man who walked straight out of myth and into my life.

01:11:37.800 Though like Selene, I only had him under less than ideal conditions.

01:11:44.380 but still his magic mingled with mine and we went to a new country with a bridge only he and I can

01:11:53.160 cross together we made magic mischief and mistakes under moonlight and much music and madness

01:12:04.400 and then he was gone and I could only see him when I looked at the stars

01:12:11.300 like neverland i was barred from that special place without him and then the worst happened

01:12:19.820 i forgot my own magic my own magic not dependent on someone's fairy dust or found in a distant land

01:12:30.500 or entered to at someone else's invitation my own magic that had fueled my first years

01:12:39.040 tended my heart's hearth.

01:12:43.800 Hestia and Vesta were unhonored, forgotten.

01:12:49.020 I'd forgotten or not realized that my own magic

01:12:52.780 had been the beacon for all those magical invitations

01:12:56.440 from others.

01:12:58.000 That my own magic was realer than real.

01:13:02.060 That the voices who told me that magic was not real,

01:13:06.820 fantasy evil child's play were wrong even if they were well-meaning

01:13:13.920 so I started listening to another voice the one inside me the voice that triangulated

01:13:23.660 with the universe and its source the voices in the books that knew the path to that place

01:13:31.200 that magical place inside of me to the crazy beautiful lovely women in my coven yes coven

01:13:40.940 who knew about that place too because they have their own and every new moon the borders are

01:13:49.600 porous and we play together in the coven between our ears and in our hearts and under the stars

01:13:58.460 and floating in this universe and beyond and i embrace my witchy side my wacky side my weird side

01:14:08.320 with my sisters because neverland always exists and wonderland too and many more in my heart

01:14:19.480 which is a star the brightest one in the constellation of who i am brimming with light

01:14:28.500 and power among the comforting cocoon of the darkness shining because i must

01:14:36.140 because the heart is a star the heartbeat of the whole enchanted universe

01:14:43.460 so Callie thank you so much for joining us for our hopefully first annual Missing Witches

01:14:51.760 listener poetry reading I hope you'll come back and hang out with us again and of course Risa

01:14:56.260 and I would be happy to join you on the Pocket Coven podcast again anytime listeners I'll put

01:15:02.320 that episode in the show notes for this episode so you can hear our last conversation with Callie

01:15:07.080 and her podcast partner and in the meantime how can our listeners maybe take a class that you are

01:15:17.700 going to be teaching in future how can they get in touch how can they reach your poetry

01:15:22.200 there are yeah there are so many ways right well first thank you for having me on I've of course

01:15:30.980 wanted to be on for so long I just love you and Risa and what you do and also happy first book

01:15:39.300 birthday by the way I'm so happy for you and your beautiful book thank you it's like the longest and

01:15:46.680 the shortest year of my life I think yeah plus the pandemic time is so weird literally if the book

01:15:53.720 hadn't come out in 2021 i would have like no frames of reference for 2021 2021 just seems like

01:16:01.740 a blur of a fever dream i agree i agree well the really cool news that i'm excited to share with

01:16:10.000 you and and the missing witches listeners is that i have my first publication coming out

01:16:16.940 i am writing a tarot deck i'm writing and illustrating a tarot deck with my dear friend

01:16:29.040 moriah seal who's best known for her best-selling journal series 52 lists um and we are publishing

01:16:36.140 our tarot deck and it's accompanying guidebook uh and workbook through clarks and potter which is

01:16:43.740 the penguin random house gift section um and it's going to be aimed at really self-care and kind of

01:16:51.300 a more holistic approach to using the tarot for everyday enchantment so that's exciting and you

01:16:58.080 can hear what's the publication date for that do you have one yet probably 2024 which feels so far

01:17:04.480 away considering we started working on this in 2020 but it's gonna come up like this you're like 1.00

01:17:10.120 shit. I know. I know. I'm so excited though. And, uh, we will be sharing more as we get closer to 1.00

01:17:19.740 that. The deck that we're going to be publishing is titled every little thing you do is magic.

01:17:27.340 Oh, a police fan in the house. You know, I was writing our proposal and I put in it,

01:17:37.020 you know we truly believe that every little thing you do is magic and my co-author was like that's

01:17:41.360 it that's the title of the project that's the one and that was like our editor sarah neville who's

01:17:47.540 incredible incredible so blessed to have her she was like i love that name it's been it's been a 0.51

01:17:56.460 nice gift so thanks to whoever wrote that song it's a it's a fucking great song too and i'm like

01:18:03.900 a sonic witch so when i hear like that song will be stuck in my head for the rest of the day

01:18:07.840 which is fine because i love it i love that yeah i don't love the police i love the band

01:18:13.720 let me specify a cab but sting is okay no sing solo solo stuff is he's gone too far for me but

01:18:24.440 the police forever in the meantime you can find me on all the socials at gosh callie g-o-s-h-c-a-l-l-i-e

01:18:36.080 and on my website callielittle.com where you can also see pretty much everything i've ever written

01:18:42.580 i have a blog there i have a link to my patreon i also share about my career as a counselor and

01:18:50.200 my career as a tattoo artist now because you know I can't just do one thing and you're you're on the

01:18:56.220 west coast right I am I'm in Seattle Washington yeah so next time I'm on the west coast I'll get

01:19:01.480 a tattoo from you I can't wait oh my god come do it now I'm doing spellcraft inspired tattoos

01:19:10.280 that are meant to help infuse that magic into your skin and your life so I'm really excited

01:19:16.040 Yeah, this has been like my notion of tattoos.

01:19:18.980 My shittiest tattoos are some of my favorite tattoos.

01:19:23.900 But I hope you'll give me something of a higher quality

01:19:26.520 than the ones I got in like basements and motel rooms.

01:19:30.960 It'll at least be safer.

01:19:35.480 Oh, thank you so much for having me on.

01:19:38.080 It has been so lovely.

01:19:39.980 Oh, and of course you can find me on my podcast,

01:19:42.740 The Pocket Coven.

01:19:43.420 You can get us wherever you get podcasts.

01:19:46.040 get tattooed read poetry and see you next year hopefully you'll be hearing your poem

01:19:52.760 listener who didn't submit this year on this same episode next year and for those of you who did

01:19:59.460 send your poetry thank you for your bravery thank you for your honesty thank you for your creativity

01:20:05.380 i can't tell you about well i can i will tell you that every time i got one and i would sit down and

01:20:14.220 I would listen to it. It was validating. It was soul crushing. It was joyful. It was a real

01:20:22.380 emotional rollercoaster. So again, thank you, Callie, for joining us all on this rollercoaster

01:20:26.700 today. Thank you to all the missing witches out there. I am so honored to be here and to hear

01:20:33.020 your beautiful words. Read poetry, write poetry. Bless the fucking bee.

01:20:39.320 You must be a witch. 1.00

01:20:45.680 The Missing Witches podcast is entirely listener funded. If you love the project and you want to

01:20:52.480 support us and our community building, please consider joining us on Patreon at patreon.com

01:20:58.540 slash missing witches.

01:21:03.020 You 1.00

Missing Witches - April 14, 2022

The Muse Is You： Listener Poetry Reading Special with Callie Little

Episode Stats

Transcript