{"id":20959,"date":"2019-02-22T09:44:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-22T14:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=20959"},"modified":"2019-03-01T07:16:23","modified_gmt":"2019-03-01T12:16:23","slug":"too-magical-not-to-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/too-magical-not-to-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"Too Magical Not to Believe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image:<\/a><\/p>\n

[Image: photo of “Familiar,” sculpture by Dorcas Casey<\/a> (winner of the 2013 Public Speaks Prize at the Broomhill (UK) National Sculpture competition. The detailing of these pieces appears to have been, well, too incredible not to be believed. Casey herself has said<\/a> of them: “I intend these domestic creatures and materials to appear familiar, comforting and playful whilst also seeming disconcertingly sinister and malevolent.” See the gallery at her Web site<\/a> for more examples of creatures which, once seen, are difficult to <\/em>unsee (e.g., this closeup<\/a> of the bull’s head).]<\/em><\/p>\n

From whiskey river<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n

Magic doesn’t sweep you away; it gathers you up into the body of the present moment so thoroughly that all your\u00a0explanations<\/em>\u00a0fall away: the ordinary, in all its plain and simple outrageousness, begins to shine—to become luminously, impossibly so. Every facet of the world is awake, and you within it.<\/p>\n

The deeper I slid into the material density of the real, the more I found that there was nothing determinate or predictable about existence. Actuality, this inexhaustible mystery, cannot be domesticated. It is wildness incarnate. Reality shapeshifts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(David Abram [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Not Anyone Who Says<\/strong><\/p>\n

Not anyone who says, “I’m going to be
\ncareful and smart in matters of love,”<\/span>
\nwho says, “I’m going to choose slowly,”
\nbut only those lovers who didn’t choose at all
\nbut were, as it were, chosen
\nby something invisible and powerful and uncontrollable
\nand beautiful and possibly even
\nunsuitable—
\nonly those know what I’m talking about
\nin this talking about love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Mary Oliver [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and<\/a>:<\/p>\n

You have to return to the stillness often to balance yourself out and to keep from becoming as extreme as the jumpy little symbols that pulse through your mind. Return again and again until you come to see that you are really there all the time anyway. Until you listen to the sound of your own voice as if it were small and far away, and the sound gives you no real pleasure anymore, but the listening does, the listening contains all the richness that you used to seek.<\/p>\n

Return over and over until you watch the movements of your mind and find that your thoughts have lost their cleverness somewhere down the line. They still ring, but ring hollow. You’re no longer so easily convinced as before, and the brilliance is now in the watching. The brilliance that you sought has remained hidden behind each movement of your mind, hidden in the twisted branches of the continual seeking.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(G. BlueStone [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Not from whiskey river<\/em>:<\/p>\n

1938<\/strong><\/p>\n

Superman flies onto his first comic book.
\nOil bubbles up in Saudi Arabia.
\nOrson Welles’ The War of the Worlds invades
\nevery panicked radio along the eastern seaboard.
\nThe Spanish Civil War rages on. Filming starts
\non The Wizard of Oz. At New York City’s
\nCarnegie Hall, John Hammond’s Spirituals
\nTo Swing concert explodes with African chants,
\nthe Count Basie Band, boogie-woogie,
\nNew Orleans jazz, hot gospel, stride piano,
\nharmonica instrumentals, Big Bill Broonzy’s
\nblues. The audience hears the ghost of Robert
\nJohnson, four months gone, easing out
\nof a Victrola phonograph at center stage—
\nthe entire concert suddenly enveloped
\nby the man who was not there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(J. Patrick Lewis [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

The finished clock is resplendent. At first glance it is simply a clock, a rather large black clock with a white face and a silver pendulum. Well crafted, obviously, with intricately carved woodwork edges and a perfectly painted face, but just a clock.<\/p>\n

But that is before it is wound. Before it begins to tick, the pendulum swinging steadily and evenly. Then, then it becomes something else.<\/p>\n

The changes are slow. First, the color changes in the face, shifts from white to grey, and then there are clouds that float across it, disappearing when they reach the opposite side.
\nMeanwhile, bits of the body of the clock expand and contract, like pieces of a puzzle. As though the clock is falling apart, slowly and gracefully.<\/p>\n

All of this takes hours.<\/p>\n

The face of the clock becomes a darker grey, and then black, with twinkling stars where numbers had been previously. The body of the clock, which has been methodically turning itself inside out and expanding, is now entirely subtle shades of white and grey. And it is not just pieces, it is figures and objects, perfectly carved flowers and planets and tiny books with actual paper pages that turn. There is a silver dragon that curls around part of the now visible clockwork, a tiny princess in a carved tower who paces in distress, awaiting an absent prince. Teapots that pour into teacups and minuscule curls of steam that rise from them as the seconds tick. Wrapped presents open. Small cats chase small dogs. An entire game of chess is played.<\/p>\n

At the center, where a cuckoo bird would live in a more traditional timepiece, is the juggler. Dress in harlequin style with a grey mask, he juggles shiny silver balls that correspond to each hour. As the clock chimes, another ball joins the rest until at midnight he juggles twelve balls in a complex pattern.<\/p>\n

After midnight, the clock begins once more to fold in upon itself. The face lightens and the cloud returns. The number of juggled balls decreases until the juggler himself vanishes.<\/p>\n

By noon it is a clock again, and no longer a dream.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Erin Morgenstern [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n

…and:<\/p>\n

Believe in Magic?<\/strong><\/p>\n

How could I not?
\nHave seen a man walk up to a piano
\nand both survive.
\nHave turned the exterminator away.
\nSeen lipstick on a wine glass not shatter the wine.
\nSeen rainbows in puddles.
\nBeen recognized by stray dogs.
\nI believe reality is approximately 65% if.
\nAll rivers are full of sky.
\nWaterfalls are in the mind.
\nWe all come from slime.
\nEven alpacas.
\nI believe we’re surrounded by crystals.
\nNot just Alexander Vvedensky<\/a>.
\nMaybe dysentery, maybe a guard’s bullet did him in.
\nNonetheless.
\nNevertheless
\nI believe there are many kingdoms left.
\nThe Declaration of Independence was written with a feather.
\nA single gem has throbbed in my chest my whole life
\neven though
\neven though this is my second heart.
\nBecause the first failed,
\nsuch was its opportunity.
\nWas cut out in pieces and incinerated.
\nI asked.
\nAnd so was denied the chance to regard my own heart
\nin a jar.
\nStrange tangled imp.
\nWee sleekit in red brambles.
\nYou know what it feels like to hold
\na burning piece of paper, maybe even
\ntrying to read it as the flames get close
\nto your fingers until all you’re holding
\nis a curl of ash by its white ear tip
\nyet the words still hover in the air?
\nThat’s how I feel now,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Dean Young [source<\/em><\/a>])<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Image: photo of “Familiar,” sculpture by Dorcas Casey (winner of the 2013 Public Speaks Prize at the Broomhill (UK) National Sculpture competition. The detailing of these pieces appears to have been, well, too incredible not to be believed. Casey herself has said of them: “I intend these domestic creatures and materials to appear familiar, comforting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20964,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"David Abram, Erin Morgenstern, sculptor Dorcas Casey, et al.: 'Too Magical Not to Believe'","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,1393,250,5,50,251,3477,4159],"tags":[595,1214,1615,1628,1895,3191,3210,3682,4580,4874,4875],"class_list":{"0":"post-20959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ruminations","8":"category-whiskey-river-runningaftermyhat","9":"category-art","10":"category-06_writing","11":"category-language-writing_cat","12":"category-poetry-writing_cat","13":"category-fantasy-06_writing","14":"category-essays","15":"tag-mary-oliver","16":"tag-magic","17":"tag-reality","18":"tag-magic-realism","19":"tag-g-bluestone","20":"tag-erin-morgenstern","21":"tag-sculpture","22":"tag-dean-young","23":"tag-david-abram","24":"tag-j-patrick-lewis","25":"tag-dorcas-casey","26":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/familiar_dorcascasey_sm.jpg?fit=500%2C411&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-5s3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20959"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20976,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20959\/revisions\/20976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}