by Michelle Tocher | Dec 2, 2022
I can’t believe that I’ve lived this long without discovering the books of Kathleen Raine. Kathleen, where have you been all my life? Kathleen Raine was a poet and essayist who revered the visionary imagination and felt the heartache of its loss in a materialist age....
by Michelle Tocher | Sep 17, 2022
“To those alive to the order of reality which they embody, the old symbols will live again; it is not they, but we who are dead.” — Kathleen Raine, Defending Ancient Springs, 1967 Remember a time when words mattered? When you strung them like pearls...
by Michelle Tocher | Oct 9, 2018
At the end of this Thanksgiving weekend, I went looking for an old poem that was coming back to me. I feel the same way today as I felt then about my old friends. This one’s for you. My Old Friends Memories bubble light to the surface Pockets of air in a pool— A...
by Michelle Tocher | Sep 18, 2017
My mother is in the orchidsthe tiny yellow orchidsthat Teresita gave meafter my mother died I don’t know how my friend knewthat in the spirit of the orchidmy mother’s spirit grew. She kept them in her companyat all times, and arranged her homearound them, with...
by Michelle Tocher | Jun 15, 2017
These days I’ve been thinking a great deal about spells. What sort of power is running through us when we cast negative spells in life? I’ve heard many people say that it feels good to express their rage because they get their power back. The problem is that...
