Menu
  • Home
    • SEARCH SITE
  • About, Press
    • News
    • About
      • Meet Annie
      • Testimonials
      • Matrilineage
        • My Mother, Maggie Finch
        • Great-Aunt Jessie Wallace Hughan
      • Vows
    • Press
      • Interviews
      • Press Kit
  • POETRY
    • Books of Poetry
      • Full List of Poetry Books
      • Spells: New and Selected Poems
      • Among the Goddesses
      • Calendars
      • My Mother’s Book!
    • FAQ on Annie’s Books
    • Browse Poem-Spiral
      • Note on Reading These Poems Aloud
      • Brave Women’s Amulet
      • Walk With Me
      • Letter for Emily Dickinson
      • Encounter (scroll down for scansion)
      • Moon for Our Daughters
      • On Poetry and Architecture
      • “The Naming”: Memorial Poem for 9-11
      • Keys
      • A Wedding on Earth
      • Spells for the Wheel of the Year
      • Summer Solstice Chant
    • Listen to Poems
    • Collaborations
    • Translation
  • POETICS
    • Books About Poetry
    • Essays on Poetry
    • Books for Poets
      • Best Books for Poets
      • A Poet’s Craft
      • The Body of Poetry
      • Poetics Anthologies
        • A Formal Feeling Comes
        • Villanelles
        • Measure for Measure
        • Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetry
        • An Exaltation of Forms
    • Gifts for Poets
      • A Blessing on the Poets
      • What, Exactly, is Poetry?
      • How to Read Metrical Poetry Aloud
      • How to Create a Poetic Tradition
      • 60 Places to Publish Formal Poetry
      • How to Scan a Poem
    • Poetry Witch Press
  • ACTIVISM
    • Abortion
      • Choice Words: Writers on Abortion
      • An Abortion Day Spell for Two Voices
      • Abortion Healing Ritual
      • Abortion Epic
      • Abortion as a Sacrament: A Poet’s Perspective
      • Download Choice Words Toolkit
    • Essays on Spirituality
    • Witch
    • Potions
    • Chants
    • Resources
      • Reading Lists
      • Witchy Links
      • Internal Family Systems
  • EVENTS
    • Upcoming Events
      • Past Events Archive
    • Offerings
      • Readings
      • Talks and Lectures
      • Campus Visits
      • Concerts & Collaborations
      • Theater & Ritual
    • Blog & Podcast
    • Poetry Witch Community
    • Consulting
  • PERFORMANCE
    • Mystery Plays
    • Book of Spells
    • Poetic Commissions
    • Sexual Abuse Healing Ritual
    • More Rituals
      • Healing Rituals
      • Abortion Healing Ritual
      • Emerging Women Ritual
  • Connect
    • Annie’s Spellsletter
    • Connect
      • Contact Annie
      • Bookings
      • Online Visit
      • Poetry Witch Community
    • Shop
      • Poetry Witch Press
      • Zazzle Shop
      • Bookshop
      • Consultations
  • Subscribe

Annie Finch

  • Subscribe Here for Annie’s Spellsletter

Letter for Emily Dickinson

When I cut words you never may have said
into fresh patterns, pierced in place with pins,
ready to hold them down with my own thread,
they change and twist sometimes, their color spins
loose, and your spider generosity
lends them from language that will never be
free of you after all. My sampler reads,
“called back.” It says, “she scribbled out these screeds.”
It calls, “she left this trace, and now we start”—
in stitched directions that follow the leads
I take from you, as you take me apart.

You wrote some of your lines while baking bread,
propping a sheet of paper by the bins
of salt and flour, so if your kneading led
to words, you’d tether them as if in thin
black loops on paper. When they sang to be free,
you captured those quick birds relentlessly
and kept a slow, sure mercy in your deeds,
leaving them room to peck and hunt their seeds
in the white cages your vast iron art
had made by moving books, and lives, and creeds.
I take from you as you take me apart.

From SPELLS: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS (Wesleyan University Press, 2013)

Listen to “Fresh Patterns,” a Recording of This Poem with Music by Lori Laitman

Share this content instantly via the share buttons. Thanks for spreading the word!
  • Home
  • About, Press
  • POETRY
  • POETICS
  • ACTIVISM
  • EVENTS
  • PERFORMANCE
  • Connect
  • Subscribe

Copyright © 2023 · SITE DESIGN BY LSC STUDIO

Copyright © 2023 · Style Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Close