Day 12 — one magic book + gareth’s book of magic

1983 (age 13) was a crazy year for me, reading wise. The previous year I’d discovered The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the school library two days after my birthday. [A poem has already been written about this, though it might be cannibalised/expanded to fit the format of these Lawrence’s Maxim poems. Potentially interesting aside: I actually read the trilogy before The Hobbit not realising they were connected.]

That year I also dove headlong into fantasy in a big way. The Belgariad, The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Pratchett’s first Discworld, The Colour of Magic, The original Shannara Trilogy, The Mists of Avalon, The Neverending Story with its coloured text, Mary Stewart’s Arthurian Saga, the first 4 or 5 L. Frank Baum Oz books, Watership Down & Duncton Wood, Prince Ombra, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea series, The Books of the Isle series & countless others in that & subsequent years. Many (if not most) of these books I still own.

And the book which forms the subject of this poem. Magician by Raymond E. Feist. Note: As with last Saturday’s poem I’ve played with the layout so you’ll need to click on the image to enlarge to get the full effect. I’m intending them all to ultimately form a sequence.

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Lawrence’s Maxim 02 – Magician

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Day 12 Factoid – my personalised magic book 

gareth’s grimoire 

a grimoire is a book of spells : a magic textbook : providing instruction in

producing : talismen  potions &  amulets
performing : spells  charms &  enchantments
summoning &/or invoking : the cornucopia of supernatural 
     entities such as angels  demons & the whole
     potpourri of  miscellaneous sprites
divining : things others don’t want known but you do

the only chapter i would want 
in a grimoire of my own is one entitled 

How to pause time           long enough to read every book I’ve ever wanted

Day 01 – firsts: reading + writing

April. Again. Therefore Na/GloPoWriMo 2025. It felt like it arrived with a rush. Today has been a week packed into a day already. But I’m looking forward to this year because … 

As in previous years I’m adopting a themes-based approach to Na/GloPoWriMo. And this year it’s something I should, by all rights, love doing since I’ve picked a theme I love, well, doing. My task is to write a reading or book-inspired poem every day. Happy is the man who makes his vocation his vacation & all that. Well, there we go. I’ve already written over a dozen reading/book inspired poems at intermittent stages in my life. So let’s make it official & see if we can get a chapbook out of it.

So the grist for this year’s mill will include: books, book memories, stories about books, lists of books, face books, book is revist often & some I’ve ben too scared too), fave reading quotes & fave book quotes (yes I keep a file of such things), book facts & reading stats, book covers, libraries, lending books, dream house plans which is basically any house with enough rooms to use 40 of them as libraries, book collecting, shopping for books, buying books, quirky topics I collect books on, disputes with parents on the number I books I own, and so on.

As previously II, since the project I have in mind may depend on the poems not being made public prior to their appearance I won’t necessarily be posting the entirety of each poem on my blog, but sometimes a [hopefully] tantalising snippet (many journals/comps/etc refuse to accept poems even if they’ve only been on personal Facebook pages or blogs with minimal subscribers). 

As a wonderful compensation for skimpy serious verse, I’ll be repeating my daily Poetic Factoid poem assignment from previous years — which if I’m honest — can produce better poems than the main event. Hahaha!

Day 1 – reading: act I

first memory reading 
hand written words 
on pieces of paper 
kept in toy box 
at grandparents’ house
sitting beneath 
dining room table 
under which 
we’d eat Christmas 
dinners for decades 
shuffling words 
into simple sentences 

— both acts forever imbued 
with everlasting magic 

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Factoid 1 – first known author

not Gilgamesh again

google tricked me today 
by answering who wrote the first book
not with the anticipated response  
the unknown author of Gilgamesh
but Enheduanna 
                             — a Mesopotamian 
high priestess of the moon (of course she is)
her name means “Ornament of Heaven”
author of 42 temple hymns, the myth
of Inanna & Ebih & 2 hymns to the love goddess
all composed three centuries prior to the Epic
& her name is known 
                                    — despite the anonymity 
of her contemporary poets’ works 
all of which pleases me greatly 
(aside from being forgotten today)
but nothing more than when 
                                                 — at the end of one hymn
she bitches about how difficult the creative process is

yep, writer’s block was a thing even back then

Day 21 — underground fungi & Gruen undercover

This poem is a sibling to yesterday’s in that it began as a verse in that Frankenpoem which did not fit in with the rest, but was an idea I liked & echoed one I’d been considering: a poem wherein Big O is a fun guy while making his way down to Hades. The title just won’t work though… 

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shroom-zoom


took a wrong turn
shimerlight lost
not even shades
wander this way
lick water from walls
but wretched hunger
will claim me first
at least i’ll die here
perhaps my psyche 
will find its way to E
only the sooty fungi
the clang of clay pots
tracking spicy spores
down into the river
at the end of the world
beginning of the universe
stars & souls & gods
all zooming by / the ache
of my internal eyes

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Day 21 — TIL about the Gruen Effect

the Gruen Effect

shopping malls (& casinos)
modern pilgrimage sites
fully enclosed  introverted
climate-controlled faux 
town squares skylight-lit food 
court pleasuredomes+parking
are intentionally designed as 
confusing customer traps /
disorienting / losing track 
of time & space / engrossing 
overwhelming experiences /
crammed with colour / bright 
lights / tantalising smells / to 
transport customers in/
to states of emotional
arousal / succumb to countless 
tempting desires / forget their original 
reason for shopping / make impulse purchases
because / they’re / available / & / attractive

\ not because \ they’re needed


Day 28 – white magick cleansing 

A more playful poem than some this month, because after all, I do still have my sense of humour.

 

 

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deep cleansing the past month

week 1: a necessary exorcise of Her

my friend Charlotte convinced
that to provide clarity & clear 
the psychic air around me i must 
exorcise Her negative energy
from my  home  head  &  heart 

together we assemble two strands 
of black hair & one of henna;
a handwritten letter; & the sole gift
i ever got (a clue in itself she whispers) 
a copy of Her favourite book

i must burn them at midnight 
of a new moon ie tonight
i’m tired i tell her & it’s cold out
she’s long gone when i sacrifice 
Her meagre possessions to flame

— it makes no difference 

.

week 2: Spell for Aura and Energy Flow

disappointed but not deterred
Charlotte has lent me her
White Spells for Modern Wiccans
with multiple pages marked

turning to the first post-it note
her neat handwriting declares: this spell
is perfect for purifying one’s aura 
or the energy flow between two people

things i need

bundle dry sage
“loaded” white candle
a feather (purified)
photo of each of us

having none of these items
Charlotte swiftly visits 
& watches as i perform
the spell under her steely gaze

   i. put candle & sage
   on a silver platter
   with the two photos

   ii. light candle
   burn sage carefully
   creating smokeless smoke

   iii. with the feather 
   sweep smoke towards
   the outside of the house

— it makes no difference 

.

 

week 3: Enchantment to ward negative energy from the home

on a waning moon day
peel & quarter an onion
form in a cross on a white plate 
in front of a brown candle
light the candle, chanting

   Creature of fire 
   Bringer of tears 
   Hear my desire 
   Banish my fears 

   Power of three 
   Set this home free
   Cleanse it today
   Long may it stay

travelling counterclockwise
walk through the house

saucer in left hand, candle in right
turn three times clockwise in every room

leave the onion & candle in the kitchen 
until it’s completely burnt down

then throw the wax on your lawn
& bury the onion far from home

— it makes no difference 


.

week 4: spell of my own devising

go into the garden
pluck five sprigs of fresh mint
return inside
heat some water
(from the tap is fine)

tear the leaves 
from the stalks
& drop in a mug
pour hot water over
breathe in deeply

pop your patio chair 
in a patch of warm 
autumn sunshine 
but take a rug too 
cos there are clouds above

sigh loudly after sipping
open the given book
(course i didn’t burn it
i’m no monster)
lose yourself in reading

— it doesn’t fix everything 
but it makes a small difference 

Day 2 – from the TO READ PILE (fiction room, leftover titles from yesterday)

This poem is a Title Poem taken from titles unused from yesterday.

Arrrggghhhh!  Just seeing the titles, makes me wanna read about a dozen of these books right now!

 

beautiful chaos

take the underground road
the narrow road to the deep north
to the magic mountain
where the pagan lord

gives instructions for breathing
demonstrates magic tricks
& time machines
are repaired while-U-wait

Day 24 – April Twenty Four: spit-spot off to bed

I’m reading the biography of P.L.Travers (the woman who created Mary Poppins) – it’s a wonderful rich inspiring book (unlike Disney’s saccharine superficial movie).  It sparks, tingles, fires & inspires so many ideas which I dash off as I read. This is the best of them from today.

night terrors

The children are frightened
of ceiling cracks
creaking radiators
& hot water services
which sizzle in the night

We calm them
with ancient tales
of transformation
flights against the sun
forest witches, & other grims

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 mary poppins