As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

What is a spell?In As Blood Is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells, this question conjures many answers. Ultimately it's this: A spell is that most ancient tool of poets and storytellers using crafted language powered by breath and clear focus, sent forth as a messenger into the cosmos. As Mary Ruefle has said, "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." Some of the poems in this book foretell, some protect; some condemn, some praise.Always they spring from this central belief: there is no power like the power of the word.

Bradley's spells amuse and admonish us in quirky and surprising ways. His long lines wind thru strange spaces and take us along for the ride. Some spells are dark and some quite funny, taken all together they are a view into the surreal world of incantation, long the province of poets.

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As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

What is a spell?In As Blood Is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells, this question conjures many answers. Ultimately it's this: A spell is that most ancient tool of poets and storytellers using crafted language powered by breath and clear focus, sent forth as a messenger into the cosmos. As Mary Ruefle has said, "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." Some of the poems in this book foretell, some protect; some condemn, some praise.Always they spring from this central belief: there is no power like the power of the word.

Bradley's spells amuse and admonish us in quirky and surprising ways. His long lines wind thru strange spaces and take us along for the ride. Some spells are dark and some quite funny, taken all together they are a view into the surreal world of incantation, long the province of poets.

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As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

by John Bradley
As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

As Blood is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells

by John Bradley

Overview

What is a spell?In As Blood Is the Fruit of the Heart: A Book of Spells, this question conjures many answers. Ultimately it's this: A spell is that most ancient tool of poets and storytellers using crafted language powered by breath and clear focus, sent forth as a messenger into the cosmos. As Mary Ruefle has said, "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." Some of the poems in this book foretell, some protect; some condemn, some praise.Always they spring from this central belief: there is no power like the power of the word.

Bradley's spells amuse and admonish us in quirky and surprising ways. His long lines wind thru strange spaces and take us along for the ride. Some spells are dark and some quite funny, taken all together they are a view into the surreal world of incantation, long the province of poets.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781962847186
Publisher: DOS Madres Press
Publication date: 03/01/2025
Pages: 134
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

John Bradley was born in Brooklyn, New York, and grew up in Framingham, Massachusetts; Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska; Massapequa and Lynbrook, New York; and Wayzata, Minnesota. His first book, Love-in-Idleness: The Poetry of Roberto Zingarello, won the Washington Prize, in 1989, and a second edition, expanded and revised, was published by Word Works. Besides writing poetry, he is also fond of composing aphorisms, some of which appear in the anthologies Short Flights and Short Circuits. He's been a reviewer of poetry books for Rain Taxi for many years. The recipient of two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, a Pushcart Prize, and a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, he's currently a poetry editor for Cider Press Review. He lives in DeKalb, Illinois, with his wife, Jana, and their cats, Kiki and Zuzu. Learn more at: johnbradleypoetry.com.
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