“Incantation” by Maureen Cummins
INANNA. ENHEDUANNA. NISABA, colored as the stars.
KALI, The Ferocious, The Vengeful, goddess of fury.
MEDEA. ELECTRA. LADY MACBETH. IPHIGENIA, murdered by her father.
SAPPHO. MURASAKI. DE PIZAN.
Learn your alphabet. Practice your ABCs: Aphra Ben. Aphra Ben. Aphra Ben.
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JOAN OF ARC, bound and burned. HÉLOÏSE, captured and caged. HYPATIA, skin sliced to bone.
All those warrior women: Dressed as soldiers. Fighting in drag.
I don’t fear the rebel bullets, I don’t fear the cannon.
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SARAH GOOD—GOODY GOOD—Executed July 19, 1692.
What creature did you employ? No creature but I am falsely accused.
I am innocent to a witch. And if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink.
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HARRIET TUBMAN. SOJOURNER TRUTH. Give me freedom or give me death.
Ain’t I a woman? Ain’t I a woman? Ain’t I a woman?
There is no undoing the damage and there is no turning back.
You become a certain kind of person and that is that.
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ZORA NEALE HURSTON, dead, forgotten, resurrected.
AUDREY LORDE. African priestess. Turbaned, dashikied, a warrior poet.
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MOTHER JONES, SUSAN B., COUNTESS MARKIEVICZ’ advice to women:
Dress suitably in short boots, leave your jewels in the bank, and buy a revolver.
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RICH. POWELL. O’BRIEN.
RHYS. DURAS. DICKINSON.
DICKINSON. DICKINSON. DICKINSON.
Hiding within a flower. Handled with a chain.
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FISHER. WALKER. CATHER. WELDON. MILLAY.
Fishing. Walking. Cathing. Millaying.
Row Row Row Your Boat. MUNRO. MUNRO. Munroing.
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Wide Sargasso Sea. The Waves. Everything Rising, Everything Converging.
Little Birds. The Captain’s Deathbed. In the Forest. Night. Down by the River.
Twilight Sleep. My home is Far Away. What is Found There?
A Room of One’s Own. A Place to Live. The Final Harvest. An Ample Bed.
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SYLVIA. VIRGINIA. DOLORES.
BODKIN. BODKIN. A bare bodkin.
HELL HATH NO FURY. HELL HATH NO FURY. HELL HATH NO FURY!
PLATH. SEXTON. WOOLF.
Woolf den. Woolf pack. Woolf howl.
WOOLF HOWL. WOOLF HOWL. WOOLF HOWL!
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Maureen Cummins Artist Statement:
Maureen Cummins is a native New Yorker who has cranked presses from California to the Eastern
Arctic and produced over 30 limited edition book projects. Her “re-created” books are based on subject
matter as diverse as slave narratives, the Salem witch trials, turn of the century gay love letters, and
records from McLean Hospital, the oldest mental hospital in the United States. She is represented in
over one hundred permanent public collections and has received over a dozen grants and funded
residencies, including the prestigious Pollock-Krasner award.
