poetry | bloodteethandflame

Category: poetry

“Though I’ve always loved Wendell Berry’s poem “The Peace of Wild Things,” I often lament (at the same time as I understand) its movement away from the human, and one night after reading it I heard these words:

I try to keep hoping.

I keep telling myself that something can be done, something must be done, and it rings and rings in my head when I cannot sleep at night…

Things can be done.

Things must be done.

It’s not going to be easy…

But we must believe that we can do these things.

And then

We must do these things.

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July 20, 2025

True

Just to be clear
I don’t want to get out
without a broken heart.
I intend to leave this life
so shattered
there’s gonna have to be a thousand
separate heavens
for all of my separate parts.

– Andrea Gibson

Rip 🤍🕊

13 August 1975 – 14 July 2025

If you know me, you may notice that I love poetry.

All sorts of poetry.

But I’d never heard of Andrea Gibson, nor was I familiar with any of their poetry until yesterday.

Gods, I’d wish that I’d had, because my social feeds flooded with the beauty of their words yesterday.

But I suppose that is the way that it is, isn’t it?

And it seems a shame that I did not know of their existence until yesterday.

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July 15, 2025

Month for Loki: Fourteen

LOKI’S GIFTS

Hail Loki, honour to Loki

To Sif you gave her golden hair;
You have given me renewal.

Honour to the Son of Laufey.

To Thor you gave Mjolnir;
You have given me strength in the face of my enemies.

Hail Loki, honour to Loki

To Frey you gave Skinbladnir;
You have borne me over mighty gulfs.

Honour to the Son of Laufey.

To Frey you gave Gullinbursti;
You have been a radiance for me through the darkest times

Hail Loki, honour to Loki.

To Odin you gave Draupnir;
You have given me wealth uncounted.

Honour to the Son of Laufey.

To Odin you gave Gungnir;
You have given me victory.

Hail Loki, honour to Loki.

Honour to the fair One,
Honour to the cunning One,
Honour to the generous One,
Hail the Son of Laufey.

-by Mordant Carnival

(poem from ‘Be Thou My Hearth and Shield: Prayers in the Northern Tradition,’ Elizabeth Vongvisith, editor; Asphodel Press, Hubbardstown, MA, 2009; p. 124.)

(Artwork: Loki by irenhorrors)

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July 6, 2025

Month for Loki: Six

Call to Loki

Stirrer of strife, mischief-monger,
Father of falsehoods, teller of tales,
Maker of laughter and bringer of change.

Father and mother, god and giant,
Friend and foeman, order and chaos.

By your hand fall the empires of kings;
At your touch the green leaves wither.
The warm and drowsy peace of the mead-hall
Is shattered by the roar of your wrangling,
And men who were content to sit
Rend asunder their safe stillness.

Loki, sly one, bench-mate of Odin,
We call you here as our companion;
Tear us from our certain harvest
And push us forward into spring.
Where content was, now stir longing;
Where peace was, create now strife.
Wane the moon that it may wax–
Kill the sun that it may rise!
Come to us and make us merry —
Loður — Loptr — Loki – Come!

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July 2, 2025

Month for Loki: Two

Hail to the Mischievous One, the bringer of laughter
Hail to the Giver of Strange Gifts, the bringer of fortunate happenstance
Hail to the Mother of Monsters, the bringer of love to the forgotten and scorned
Bless and walk with us this day.

— ladybrythwensinclair, on tumblr

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October 14, 2024

Poem

Now when dying grasses veil
earth from the sky in one last pale
wave, as autumn dies to bring
winter back, and then the spring,
we who die ourselves can peel
back another kind of veil
that hangs among us like thick smoke.

~ Annie Finch