Hag Stone

The hag stone – adder stone, ring stone, witch stone – is a folk charm consisting of a pebble with a natural hole through the middle. The stone is tied with red ribbon to bedposts to repel the evil eye, or it might be hung in stables as a bar against witches.
In Hag Stone natural objects and scenes are similarly imbued with brooding shamanic power, a power that the poems attempt with equal vigour to exorcise and to invoke. In a space of necromancy and lament, curses are cast, spirits summoned, and sacrifices offered. Here, transformations occur: the stone itself might, at any given point, be whet stone, shew stone, hunger stone, woman. It might be anvil or altar. It might be a brick thrown through a window.

Our guide to this world – which both is and isn’t our own – is an impossible ‘I’, an uncanny oracular witness, haunting the borders of lyric address.

‘Fran Lock balances a vast vocabulary with a perfect ear for rhythm, a wicked sense of humour, and pathos that bites when you least expect it.’
Tristram Fane Saunders