wytchcroft

Jean Cocteau once wrote a play called The Eagle Has Two Heads exploring the dualistic states of male and female, upper and lower class, master and servant. When I think of Regina it is in the same way, poet on the one hand, prose writer on the other.
A creator of two interwoven characters Shelby and Alberto, female and male, two sides of the creator – and in her more intimate works; husband and wife – whilst in prose the mysterious and unnamed ‘she’ and her relationship with God.

These double acts pulse with a broiling life that drives Shelby onto the highway and the eye of the reader back to scanning eagerly for a new entry on the page. Regina, I compared you to Diane di Prima when I first encountered your work – and it’s still an apt point of reference… but how many more sides to you and your writing have I been privileged to see since then? I think I naively said I would comment now and again… ha ha ha! – I am of course an addict now and comment on almost every entry, a daily occurrence, the breadth and quantity of which are genuinely staggering.

But it’s the quality! I have been and continue to be genuinely stunned. A line, a verse, a piece – wild and free or tight and disciplined, warm and humorous or frayed and dark… you have taken me through so many dreams, shown me countless lights shining through the cracks of mysterious doors, pressed a fleshly map of human relations into my hand and whispered the secret names of strange continents; “man” and “woman”.

So many entries in this journal have been inspired by you. For all of the above - and more, I take the opportunity to thank you and wish you a very happy birthday!

And if the eagle has two heads perhaps one is a Raven…

Neversremedy – you have allowed me to read poems and stories that wind around the reader like smoke rings...
that flutter like bejewelled fingers or indeed the feathers of the Angelic Ravens of the Norse and the muse Ravens of Apollo.

Your sheer creativity is daunting to behold!
But your tolerance, deep feelings, righteous anger, family love - and occasional slapstick are also apparent and equally inspiring.
So to you as well i must say a big “Cheers!” and wish you many happy returns.

I am one lucky wytch!!:))