Incantation: Love Poems for Battle Sites

by Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo

Love Poems for Battle Sites is a Chicana's witness to the American ethos in a time marked by controversy, division, and transformation. Bermejo delves into the heart of the matter, contemplating the significance of US monuments as both symbols of history and battlegrounds for ideological strife, and imparts a compassionate ear to the marginalized, memorializing the lives of Black and brown individuals whose lives were cut short by state-sanctioned violence.
But Bermejo's poetry also brims with love, passion, and determination to resist the prevailing chaos. Amidst the chaos, she crafts love poems celebrating the bonds of family, the strength of friendships, and the allure of defiance. This collection dances like flames in rituals of resistance and resilience, illuminating paths toward a future unburdened by the shackles of misogyny and white supremacy.
The collection is inspired by writers like bell hooks, Audrey Lorde, and Adrienne Maree Brown. The influence of hooks' All About Love lends a profound sense of introspection to Bermejo's poetry as she examines the complex interplay of love within the context of societal upheaval. Lorde's exploration of the "Uses of the Erotic" adds layers of empowerment to the collection, breathing life into the transformative potential of embracing the self. And from Brown's Pleasure Activism , Bermejo draws that pleasure can be a vehicle for activism, a means of reshaping a world fractured by discord. She summons love, pleasure, and the human body to reimagine a collective vision of liberation from prejudice and discrimination. Bermejo crafts a literary sanctuary, a space where readers can confront the harsh realities of today's America while kindling the flames of hope.

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2023

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and powerful collection of poems that speak to the idea of belonging. Who is told they belong and who is told they don't belong? How can poetry upend that inequality and create a welcome space for all who have been told they don't count? Incantation is full of prayers and spells that transform sites of battle, sites of war, into sites of resistance and care. Whether within unbalanced intimate relationships or on historic battlefields, the speaker in these poems seeks to right what has been marred or discarded. An important book that asks us all to do the work of transforming the battle sites within us and around us.

[Vincent Antonio Rendoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

A playful, hopeful response to war and loss. Not what I was expecting, but so glad I picked it up.

[Benny Houseman · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for latinx literature class!

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these poems will send a sword through your heart.