Poetry as Spellcasting

Explore the meeting place between poetry and spell-casting and learn how both tell and keep secrets in your writing.

* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *

In her book, Madness, Rack and Honey, poet Mary Ruefle writes that ‘The origins of poetry are clearly rooted in obscurity, in secretiveness, in incantation, in spells that must at once invoke and protect, tell the secret and keep it.’

Where does a poem end and a spell begin? How does a poem both tell the secret and keep it? During the course we will look at how poetry is intertwined with spell-casting; how it uses incantation, evocation, metaphor, and repetition to shape-shift and enchant, to tell the secret and to keep it. We will explore how repetition in poetry is a ‘live’ connection to our earliest spells, prayers, and incantations that connected us to place and to each other, that asked for protection, and that made the sound of community. Poets will include Roseanne Watt, Joy Harjo, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Claire Askew, and Rebecca Tamás, and we may also dip into the Carmina Gadelica.

Each session will start with a talk about one or two of the ideas and techniques outlined above, and then we will look at a couple of poems to see how the poet uses those techniques to do vast connective, mysterious, and resonant work. Then I will set a related exercise to do in class (including a poem that is also a charm), and there will be time to read the work aloud, and possibly also for some immediate, off-the-cuff feedback. In the final session, we will have a workshop where participants will offer one of the poems they have written during the course for feedback from the group and the tutor.

5 fortnightly Zoom sessions on Thursdays, 7–9pm (GMT), starts 29 Jan 2026.

Concessions & Accessibility

To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].

What to Expect

Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style’. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, then please take a look at our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.

Image Credit: Anete Lusina

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