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A Herbal Amulet for Geraldine Monk
A Herbal Amulet for Geraldine Monk
Goat’s Rue
Galega Officinalis
Erythronium dens Canis
Dog’s Tooth Violet
Rattle Grass
Rhinanthus
Angelica
Angelica Archangelica
Lovage
Ligusticum Levisticum
Dog Rose
Rosa Canina
Iris
Fleur-de-Lys
Narcissus Pseudonarcissus
Common Daffodil
Eruca Sylvestris
Wild Rocket
Misseltoe
Viscous Quercus
Orpine
Sedum Telephium
Nasturtium Aquatica Sisymbrium
Water Cresses
Kleavers
Galium Aparine
smooth apt and pale
abiding long
somewhat broad, elegant and blunt
governed by the Moon’s
well of
milk
reeds red when ripe boiled in wine
drawing out dimming sight
or
cough
and the Moon in her good aspect
defends and comforts the sad heart
resists
poison
smooth and shining
divided into many parts
spreading
much
known to do great things
of pleasant grateful acidity
conserving
in sweetness
the leaves are nervous, broad
the roots gargled in the mouth
help pains and noises
in the ears
Lidelillies, Daffy-downdillies
pressed out with some white-wine
against all corrupt
filth
expels worms and other noisesome creatures
leaves with slender cuts and jags
strikes into the
head
a powerful attractive ripens and discusses
the juice dropped into the ears
one flat heart-fashioned
seed
rising greater than the wild in shadowy fields
the Moon bound to the throat
hurt or wound
anointed
consumes gross humours winter left behind
hot sharp horns spread forth at night
in the morning
washed away
fitting for the change of season that is coming
closing up the lips of green wounds
in experience
the seed is ripe and falleth
whence it springeth up again
and not from the old roots
and the body will not be bound
This text was written for and performed at the UK launch of The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk in Sheffield, September 2007. Medicinal plants from Culpeper’s Herbal spell out her name in acrostic, and the Culpeper text is then distilled in sequence.
Christine Kennedy is a writer and artist based in Sheffield. She specialises in works which combine the visual and the verbal. Her recent publications include Nineteen Nights in San Francisco (West House Books / The Cherry On The Top Press, 2007); and, with David Kennedy, a contribution to The Salt Companion to Geraldine Monk.
Copyright © 2008 by Christine Kennedy, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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