"Whether it's through her virtuoso, musical performances, her layered and lyrical song compositions, her stirring vocals that reflect her love and respect for ancient, global traditions, or the evocative storytelling in her fiction, Pan Morigan conjures our world with the skillful hand and mastery of an artist at the height of her powers. These poems represent the five spirits in her mouth, the creative forms she has studied and expanded her whole life. This is a long awaited book of an artist I've greatly admired and enjoyed over these years. What a gift it is to have these original works collected in one volume. Reading these pieces, I hear the call of ancestors, the laughter and joy of human triumphs, large and small, and feel the wonder of a writer whose vision and reimagining of our shared history, myth, and magic cast a spell over us all."
-Sheree Renée Thomas, author of Dark Matter, 9 Bar Blues: Tales From an Ancient Future, Sleeping Under the Tree of Life, and Shotgun Lullabies
"5 Spirits in my Mouth is insightful, playful, witty, wise, and in your face! Word magic! On each page, Pan Morigan surprises us with our own beauty and courage. She celebrates ordinary people and the precious moments we've been trained to discount and forget. She challenges us to resist strangled sound bites that have been emptied of spirit. A fearless poet, Pan embraces the power of words to time travel, call up new worlds, and transform the here and now from nightmare to dream. 5 Spirits in my Mouth is an ode to the incantatory power of words. Rejecting willful amnesia, Pan spotlights difficult histories, yet illuminates our capacity to make a way out of no way. In a rage/bully world, where empathy and artistry are all too often deemed useless, Pan insists on compassion, justice, humor, and that turn of phrase that sets your mind on fire."
-Andrea Hairston, Afrofuturist author of, Master of Poisons, Will Do Magic For Small Change, Redwood and Wildfire, and Archangels of Funk
