Issue 1: Christine Kennedy

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.