“Angelica”

Michelle Lynch created “Angelica” from the Complete Herbal by Nicholas Culpeper (1653). Please click here to read.

About the poem and the process of composing it, Michelle Lynch writes:

This poem was constructed from the Angelica section of Culpeper’s Complete Herbal. My process included copying out that section and then reading slowly for words to keep and words to erase. Culpeper’s language within this section was already so tantalizing that all I felt I needed to do was listen to the musicality for direction, then form stanzas. As I went along, I wanted to keep focusing on how the botanical was used in ancient times, so let that instruct me in finding my next words within the text until a full poem revealed itself to me.

Also by Michelle Lynch at Heron Tree: “Under the Black Alder.”