Are you ready to reclaim the rhythmical wisdom of your ancestors?
Is it time to call on your sacred poetic power, vibrating deep within?
Will you feel its joy — and let it to be heard?
WELCOME TO METERS' MAGIC!
Immerse yourself fully into the magical dance of poetic meters. Our year’s magical adventure through nine different meters begins on Wednesday, October 1st.
Maybe you already know this is just what you need! Claim your spot to join me in the spiral of the year.
Or, maybe, you just need to ask —
ANNIE, PLEASE REMIND ME — WHY METERS AGAIN?
Well, in the words of one student, meters are “the keys to the universe”!
I see them as the footsteps of the Goddesses through the lonely desert of our contemporary lives in the overdeveloped world –a direct and deliciously exact path home to the meaning and joy already within you.
Poets have been revered across the world, simply for meters’ magic. To craft words in rhythms connects our conscious and unconscious minds, spirits and bodies. It brings us home to ourselves as individuals—and, I believe, also as a culture. Shamans and medicine workers, bards and griots, have always used meters to heal. Why not us?
Are you ready to reclaim the lost wisdom of your most magical ancestors? Are you called to sing down the patterns that vibrate deep within you, ready to be heard and shared?
If so, the world is thirsty for your gifts — and Poemagic Year offers you the inspiration, knowledge, structure, practice, and faith to guide, nourish, and support you on your journey. Meters, like yoga, can be tricky to learn from a book. Direct human transission goes a long way, and that is my specialty . . .
Truly there is nothing like it.
Intrigued? Please read on for the full details of all the parts of Poemagic Year.– and feel free to reach out to me with any questions.
Yours in love & meters,
Annie
HEre's HOW IT WORKS . . .
Each month, you will enjoy one Spell Circle and one Meter Mistress class—so, you will combine the spiritual/practical, and the aesthetic/intellectual approaches to the same Meter of the Month.
Cool, right? And you will also be part of a sweet women’s online meter community and receive rich educational resources and thought-provoking readings on meter.
It’s all there.
Want to know more about what’s included in Poemagic Year?
Here are the details . . .
METER PRIESTESS SPELL CIRCLE (9 CIRCLES)
Poemagic Year includes a full annual cycle of Meter Priestess Spell Circle (held 4pm PT/7 pm ET on the first Wednesday of each month October-June). Here’s a full description of this sacred poetic gathering:
Inspired by ancient traditions and Annie’s own personal practice, explore how the energies of the five sacred directions—East, South, West, North, and Center—can offer insight into your current life journey.
We’ll begin with journaling and sharing in a supportive environment. Then, using a poetic practice called Meter Magic, we’ll shape our intentions into a simple, powerful spell—a poetic “amulet” you can return to for strength and inspiration throughout the month. This beautiful gathering calls the Meter of the Month into your life in a personal, practical way, setting the stage for your month’s adventure with that Meter.
No prior experience with poetry or magic is needed. Come as you are—curious, tired, joyful, uncertain. There’s space for all in the circle.
METER MAGIC MISTRESS CLASS (9 CLASSES)
Poemagic Year also includes a full annual cycle of Meter Magic Mistress Class (held 11 am PT/2 pm ET on the third Sunday of each month October-June). Here’s a full description of this exciting poetic deep-dive:
Ready to deepen your relationship with meter and verse?
Meter Magic Mistress Class is a monthly deep-dive into the rhythms of poetry and their power to shape language, thought, and even personal growth. Each session focuses on a different poetic meter—its sound, structure, and emotional resonance. You will learn to read, scan, write, and understand each meter on the deepest level from a poet who has devoted her life to this craft. These classes combine technical learning and literary understanding with creative exploration.
Whether you’re a seasoned poet or simply intrigued by the magic of rhythm, this class offers tools to:
- Strengthen your poetic craft
- Appreciate metrical poetry more deeply
- Use poetic rhythm as a tool for personal insight and empowerment
METER MAGIC SPIRAL MEMBERSHIP
Poemagic Year also includes a year’s membership to Meter Magic Spiral, the learning space Annie personally designed within Poetess Priestess Community.
Here, you’ll find a supportive women’s community excited about meters, and a wealth of videos, sample poems, handsouts, and other one-of-a-kind resources on each month’s Meter, in sync with your Spellcasting Circle and Meter Mistress Class. You’ll also have opportunities to ask Annie questions, connect with her in a private space between the monthly classes, and contribute to the monthly collaborative poem that Annie edits from the writings of the Spiralers.
Poetess & Priestess Community is devoted to exploring the rhythmic languages of poetry and life. Following in the feet of the female volurs, bards, and magical healers who first birthed the magic of Meters, we craft our lives and words in joyfully powerful ways, sending the widening circles of wisdom & beauty out into the world.
After decades of weaving together workshops, anthologies, communities, performances, retreats, and rituals from threads of words, women, rhythm, and wisdom, I created Poetess & Priestess Community—and its core meter-learning community, Meter Magic Spiral— to bring together proudly passionate women and gender nonconforming folks who are passionate to inhabit the a/mazing places where magic and poetry meet!
—Dr. Annie Finch
Founder of Poetess & Priestess Community and Meter Magic Spiral
Witchcraft has not a pedigree,
‘Tis early as our breath . . .
—Emily Dickinson
5 DIRECTIONS SUBSTACK SUBSCRIPTION
Poemagic Year also includes a year’s paid level membership in Annie’s Poetess Priestess substack.
This includes full accces to all posts on all 5 Directions topics including Poetry, Meters, Matriarchy, and Magic, including Annie’s classic essays and of-the-moment thoughts on meter in ancient, classic, and contemporary poetry, scansion, the Divine Feminine, matriarchy, sex, politics, ritual, art, life as a woman today–and how it all fits together. As a paid member, you have complete commenting access to every post and to Annie’s new podcast, “The Poem, The Meters, The Magic” p Membership also includes unlimited access to the archives and “studio audience” attendance at any livestreamed events.
POEMAGIC READING & PARTY!
Finally, Poemagic Year participants will co-plan and be part of a special end-of-year reading & celebration with Annie!
FAQ & DETAILS
Answers to a few frequently asked questions…
Curriculum of Meters We will spend one month apiece on anapests, iambs, trochees, dactyls, amphibrachs, cretics, heterometrics, dipodics, and cadences.
Experience While I promise that even the most experienced poets will find much to learn, NO experience at all in meter is necessary to benefit fully from Meters’ Magic Weaving Journey Year! My teaching style weaves the experience of everyone in together, and your questions are a great contribution!
Time commitment The events require no preparation. If you’re in listening mode, you won’t have any “homework” at all. If you are committed actively to writing and revising in each meter, and you are posting and participating in Meter Magic Meter Magic Spiral, watching the videos and doing the reading there, and bringing your revised poems to Meter Magic Mistress Class each month for my feedback, then. you can spend as much time as you like . . . maybe 2-4 hours a week is average, but it’s totally up to you!
In recognition of the Meter Magic Journeyers’ exciting commitment to the gifts that meters offer us–in will, mind, body, heart, and spirit! — your registration for Meter Magic Weaving Journey Year offers over a month’s free tuition on top of the regular 9-session discounts for each class–a total of 4 free classes. And the Meters Matrix Anthology, Journeyers Reading & Party, and planning session with me are all are exclusive to Journeyers.
Tuition: $2399/year
Value:
Me
A full refund, minus single-class-rate tuition for classes already taken, will be available throughout the first month of enrollment. After that time, no refunds will be possible.
Limited scholarship assistance is sometimes available; check with Annie.
ABOUT THE TEACHER
Annie Finch is the author of six books of poetry including Eve and Calendars (both finalists, National Poetry Series) and Spells: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, awarded the Maine Writers Award). Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Yale Review, and The New York Times and in anthologies including The Norton Anthology of World Poetry, Penguin Book of the Sonnet, and Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Annie’s book A Poet’s Craft has been described as “nothing less than an MFA program in 700 pages.” It is used widely in undergraduate and graduate programs and beyond, along with her books about poetry A Formal Feeling Comes, Villanelles, Measure for Measure, An Exaltation of Forms, The Body of Poetry, Lofty Dogmas, and others, Finch earned a Ph.D from Stanford and served for a decade as Director of the Stonecoast MFA in Creative Writing. She received the 2009 Robert Fitzgerald Award for her lifetime contribution to prosody and has lectured at universities including Harvard, Princeton, Berkeley, Notre Dame, Tulane, Indiana, Toronto, Delhi, Kinshasa, and Oxford
So what do you think? Are you in?
Perhaps you’d like to start smaller, with just one step of the journey? You can do that here!
If you still have questions, contact me here.
Or.. . ..if all this sounds great and you’re ready, yay!! I’m SO excited to welcome you into Poemagic Year!
Here you go!
I’ll see you October 1!
In love, meter, & poetry,
Annie
PS 5 Directions OF POEMAGIC. . .(A NOTE FROM ANNIE)
One final thought…If you’ve been following my Substack, you ‘ll know I think a lot about the pattern of a sacred circle, which in my practice has 5 directions. Poemagic Year combines 5 different gifts corresponding with the 5 Directions of Will, Mind, Body, Heart, and Spirit.
South/Will/Creativity: A shared ongoing web of creative inspiration, culminating in the final reading & celebration!
East/Mind/Context: The intellectual context of Poetess Priestess blog.
North/Body/Tools Meter Magic Mistress Class offers the hands-on skills and tools of scanning and exploring the meters of great poems and the option for my feedback on your own poems.
West/Heart/Community: The sisterhood of Poetess & Priestess Community, every day of your Poemagic journey.
Center/Spirit/Magic: The ritual gathering of Meter Priestess Spell Circle
As we move through the year, from month to month in our cycling dance of shared rhythms, you will experience the amazing powers of the meters to weave their healing patterns through your words, thoughts, and days!
Is this the immersion you’ve been needing to bring everything together?
Then you can reserve your place on the journey here!
Yours in love, meters, & magic,
Annie