Letter to Barnwood from Angela Peckinpaugh
Having accepted a manuscript of charm-poems by Angela Peckinpaugh and Lois Beebe Hayna, we asked Ms. Peckinpaugh to send some thoughts about the relationship between her writing and traditional charms.

The initial impetus to write charms came when I wrote one around 1975 in Amherst, MA where I was working on an MFA in Writing, but not studying anything about charms. I had purchased a book called Passages (not to be confused with the Gail Sheehy book) which had a section on exercises to induce a trance state. Looking at a photo of a circular staircase, I wrote a poem called “Nature Charm” which has a lot of circular imagery and the sort of nonlinear sequence of words one might associate with spells. I half consciously declared to myself then that I would like to write more charms. The idea was to link with presenting a more favorable view of witches, which I had an inkling of from reading a chapter on witches in Wolfgang Lederer’s book called Fear of Women.

Not long after that, by chance or synchronicity, I ran into Spiritus Mundi by Northrop Frye in a bookstore and opened immediately to his chapter on charms and riddles. The information there was very helpful in understanding charms as a literary genre, and certainly solidified my intention to do a book of charms, probably usable for exorcising unwanted psychological states, rather than physical. Some of the old charms mentioned by Frye were used to gain love, put a child to sleep, be safe from an enemy, be rid of warts, etc.

As I mentioned in the issue on charms, there is an excellent article by Felix Grendon in a 1909 issue of American Folklore, pointed out to me by Bengt Klintberg, a Swedish expert on charms and riddles. Grendon categorizes them into exorcisms, gibberish, recipes, and charms accompanying amulets and rituals. He lists some of the main characteristics of the genre and gives examples of charms of old, some pagan, some Christian.

Frye wrote that charm came from carmen or song, and its association is with sound or rhyme. Spell is used interchangeably, but to me concentrates more on the type of charm which might not make complete rational sense but would be more of an abbra cadabra listing of words. Most charms of old do rhyme, but not all. The rhyme and all properties of repetition serve the purpose of charms to entrance or enchant, to dull the rational mind and get the object of the charm into another frame of mind.

There is too much to say about the history and extant writings of charms in this brief space. I would refer those interested in the pursuit to some of the best sources I have found: Diary of a Witch, by Sybil Leek, The Spiral Dance, by Starhawk, Drawing Down the Moon, by Margot Adler, Witches, by Erica Jong, and Pagan Rituals, by Samuel Weiser. Most have fine bibliographies too.

One of the boons of this project, as far as I’m concerned, has been the knowledge I gained from doing such research on paganism. Originally in writing charms, I wanted only a theme that would allow me to do a series of poems that would get me away from autobiographical writing if possible, but allow me to indulge my propensity to rhyme. But the interest led me to an understanding and appreciation of the Old Religion, the worship of nature, the use of herbal remedies, the linking of flowers with magic in the use of pomanders and potpourris, and the need to heal through psychological concentration. Though not a practicing witch, I look favorably from a distance on current practices of white witches who gather to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and enact rituals to increase positive personal power.

What started as a mere literary endeavor has become a sympathy with a potentially ridiculed and maligned point of view. Having read the literature and practiced some of the spells, I now think charms can “work” in that they indeed can transform psychological states, sometimes resulting in the change of a material state; they can induce trance with repetition, produce faith, and temporarily protect a space. There are many writing charms today, as one can glean from reading Circle Network News, a publication produced by a Wiccan group in Wisconsin, which has subscribers in all English speaking countries. Many of the charm writers do not have literary ambitions as I do, and as did some of the old charm writers such as Shakespeare, Poe, and Spencer. But my goals are not only literary: I will continue to write for myself and friends who “need” a charm even after the Barnwood Press book is published.

I hope readers of the book find the charms not only enjoyable, even humorous at times, but also useful for whatever state they need to change.

Charm to Travel Beyond the Past

Let the rain be itself,
not the sound of it then,
behind his breathing.
This is this prestorm, full of wind
not the grey light
cast in the old window.

When I sit here
I will savor new pictures
not turn expectantly for the form
in the door, offering me a drink,
or the one in the basement,
hard at work,
saying "I'll be up in 5 minutes."

The bed still wears our stains,
rests on the same rug
he rose on, but I may sleep
without him starring
in my dreams, wake lighter,
even if I have to erase
that love.

I don't want amnesia,
electric shock blank,
just distance that says I don't
see my old goldfish
whenever I pass a pond,
don't drive my parents' car
when I am in mine.

Angela Peckinpaugh

circuit preacher
--lines after cartwrights word

I wont lean in front of you
on a broken staff
I just want to say the country
was in an agony of salvation
and I was a lost sheep
bleating around the walls
in a gang by myself
oh there was an awful shaking
among the dry bones
they waked me up on all sides
and I became
the great deep of a sinner
heart broken
the devil drank
to a dead hog that day
but I swallowed ezekiel
and tasted his honey
the old hive has sent forth
twenty swarms since then

John Knoepfle

A Story As Wet As Tears

Remember the princess who kissed the frog

so he became a prince? At first they danced
all weekend, toasted each other in the morning
with coffee, with champagne at night
and always with kisses. Perhaps it was
in bed after the first year had ground
around she noticed he had become cold
with her. She had to sleep
with heating pad and down comforter.
His manner grew increasingly chilly
and damp when she entered a room.
He spent his time in water sports,
hydroponics, working on his insect
collection.

Then in the third year

Finally on their

Marge Piercy

"A Story As Wet As Tears" may be found in Stone, Paper, Knife (Knopf, 1983).

It Weeps Away

I break the egg on the rim of the iron pan
and in the seep of albumin,
in the plop of heavier gold
marbled around the red eye, run out
the bronze feathers of the cock,
the tireless pecking and clucking
of barren hen.

Thus I lay

Marge Piercy