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  • American Witch
  • Annie Finch (bio)

I’ll follow the shadows down. And though up here It’s raining gently, it may not be, there.

Air and fire, water and earth,Witches shall remember birth.

I’ll go down in those slippery dark ways holding my life aside, to keep these days [End Page 26]

I sing into the airThe air sings into me

Birth in spirit, everywhere;Witches shall believe in air.

from coming down to trouble those who move still, past their burning

In the heart of the flamesleaps the blue of our names

Birth in power, still inspire,Witches shall believe in fire.

Maybe, while I’m there, the webs will tremble, till they keep me there

Turn me as fluid as water,Filling me, moving me on

Rain to river, ocean, daughter,Witches shall believe in water

And so I will keep quiet while the webs are built above my body, tie my head,

Earth and rock and depth of sand,Power grows everywhere I stand

Birth in body, darker birth,Witches shall believe in earth

and touch my words with their strong, sticky threads. I will not be surprised; I don’t know where

Power above, power below,Witches shall find high and low [End Page 27]

Power before, power after,Witches shall believe in laughter

Birth in spirit, center, love,Witches shall believe and move

the dark will take me, if not deeply there

Annie Finch

Annie Finch is the author of four books of poetry, including Calendars (Tupelo P) and the forthcoming Among the Goddesses: An Epic (Red Hen P). She has also written or edited nine books about poetry, most recently The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self (Michigan) and Multiformalisms: Postmodern Poetics of Form, with Susan Schultz (Word Tech). She credits the post-religious and pre-spiritual moment of Boomerdom with inspiring her to witchcraft.

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