Milk & Moon-water: Charm Poems

A Sudden Stitch. Unfruitful Land. A Fever. In Milk & Moon-water, Milena Williamson uncovers 11 Old English metrical charms - ancient incantations spoken to ward off harm - creatively translating them into magical and medicinal spells for the modern reader. Alongside each reimagining is an original charm poem, a remixed and new telling of an old text. Covering the climate crisis, illness, ageing and fertility, this collection of charms ranges from the incantatory to the unhinged, and reengages with the ancient practice of looking to the land and the body for answers to life’s new and persisting questions.