Meter wells up in me like the waves in the ocean, carrying ideas and images that come from someplace wider and wiser than my own mind. I open myself to these movements with my breath, my heartbeat, and my voice. I write for the ear.My craft as a poet is rooted in the rhythms of my body. The spiral that is carved in stones around the globe is the spiral I inscribe in each of my books when I sign a copy for a reader. I write for the Goddess in her myriad forms and for the Green Man in his wildness and strength. I write for the Earth.The rhythms and forms I have learned to love, and loved to learn, have worked their way up from the Earth through generations of human bodies. The craft of poetry’s language links our lives with animal and bird, whale and mountain and cloud and snow and tree, through the spiraling patterns of repetition. I have dedicated much of my life to learning these shapes, so that I can move aside and let their patterns speak through my words.Some of my poems are songs, chants, spells, incantations, blessings; some are rituals, plays, dramas, ceremonies. All are notes transcribed on shamanic journeys into the silence that births the heartbeat. I feel myself always as part of a spiritual community and I write to help give voice to the concerns and beliefs of my community. I am eager to write on behalf of Cherry Hill Seminary, and I would love to hear your ideas for subjects, shapes, occasions, and songs.

Blessed Be,
Annie Finch
May 5, 2012
Wesak Full Moon