High Priestesses of Poetry Volume 2 Reading Ritual
On May, 1, 2020, the poets of High Priestesses of Poetry’s 2019 cycle gathered on Zoom along with friends and family to read poems from the group’s newest Volume 2 anthology. Click for audio and video recording of the gathering!
High Priestesses of Poetry Volume II (2019) is a 182 page paperback anthology featuring more than 75 poems by Andra Light, Ash Good, Beth Melnick, Birch Dwyer, Dawn Thompson, Gabrielle Hancher, Holaday Mason, Jenn Lalime, Lunita Valeria Velásquez, Rhonda Nichols and Sierra Vida Lisa.
Circling online on the eves of each equinox and solstice, High Priestesses of Poetry is a coven of storytellers gathering to conjure the magic of our collective pasts and projections of the future. We meet as equals honoring all human lineages and use seasonal inspiration to write into our utopias. In our circles, we share original poetry and create healing poetry in community as we time travel across the year.
From the introduction:
High Priestesses of Poetry arrived in a vision—a journey of word channeled in fellowship to nourish wholeness in those who circle to play. In the midst of an upside-down epoch, we heed the call to rise as our own healers, consecrate our existence by creating art in community & grow our own utopias. We are the storytellers who pre-tend the future with sustainable practices that respect all lineages & the timeless wisdom of plant, animal, mineral & space bodies. We are present—time markers of breathing seasons. We know ourselves as speakers of magic. When we witness our intuitive intelligence, we are High Priestesses.
Our seasonal online gatherings are potent thresholds for spiritual osmosis. What we experience in the outer world is pulled in as source material & digested. What we create in our inner sanctuary nourishes emerging intimacy, serves our individual craft & reflects meaning back out into our lives. You may notice how our voices breathe into one another in the flames of inspiration that hunger and whip through this body of writing, offering affirmation that, in the faceted surfaces of others’ stories, we find a mirror to our own stories.
May this sharing of continued play, another year of our circle’s stories, point you toward the power & possibility of laying claim to your own utopias, of finding your people. •
—Ash Good
Initiatrix, High Priestesses of Poetry