Incantations

Out of grief, upheaval, derision, disappointment, and change of all kinds—from the intimate to the mythic—Incantations both admonishes and rails. Darnell Arnoult's evocative collection unleashes frustration and longing in tongues of fire. And while her poems walk heaven’s blues home in a rush of images, real and imagined, they point to an undergirding optimism and path toward healing and hope where joy lies “dazed and waiting.” The spells cast here are beyond magic, beyond human—no less than urgent, no more than what’s necessary to begin again.