I adore synchronicity and I always feel like magic is afoot when serendipity turns up in my life. A few weeks ago, before lock-down, I came across The Lost Spells and after flicking through and reading some of the poetry I knew I had to get it. It's a beautiful book of nature based poetry and stunning water colour illustrations. The words have great musicality and the artwork is very dynamic and full of movement. It's just the kind of poetry book that has a universal appeal, because its not too heavy and the illustrations add another dimension to the word pictures that the poems create.
I enjoyed reading the book and loved it's almost pagan elements of connecting with the natural world around us. My favourite poems are Red Fox who is the main character overall and the book begins and ends with him; Grey Seal with it's enchanting selkie connotations; and Silver Birch which is wintry and beautiful. I can see why The Lost Spells has been such a hit with teachers, parents and children alike. It is a gentle, fun way to introduce youngsters to the magic of poetry and the vanishing landscapes around us. This would be a great book to read to young children at bedtime, or when out on a field trip as they learn how to recognize the wildlife they come into contact with.
I read the book and then put it on the shelf with my poetry collection, and didn't think too much more about it. So imagine my surprise when one of my tutors told me that the author of The Lost Spells, Robert Macfarlane, was one of our Visiting Professors from Cambridge and that he was giving our next class! I just love it when that kind of thing happens - the magic in the everyday coincidence - because there are no coincidences really.
That class was held tonight and it was great. I learnt so much about Macfarlane and his work, not only as a poet, but also as an environmental activist too, as well as being a Fellow at Cambridge University. He even played a significant part in saving the trees of Sheffield with his poem Heartwood, which is featured in the book and was written especially for the Sheffield campaign to stop the felling of old, but healthy, trees across the city. Heartwood gave our trees a much needed, and well respected voice, because when the Fellows from the top Universities in the country speak - people tend to listen. This I feel, is a remnant of the deference given to the old cultured class, and a natural result of how Fellows have been taught to hold an audience and respectfully command a room.
His class tonight raised many questions about the legacy we are leaving environmentally and he said that we are unfortunately becoming 'bad ancestors' for future historians, who will uncover our blatant misuse of the landscape in their excavations. I can image the remnants of plastic that some future Neil Oliver type will be digging up in disgust a few hundred years from now! It's embarrassing to think about.
Macfarlane's work gets this message across in a powerful, almost subliminal way, for how can we save that which we cannot name? His poetry therefore, reaches out to children, teaching them to look around them at the birds and bees, to identify and name them - and so to love them and help save them. Sadly, it is the younger generations who will be left to right our wrongs in nature.
The Lost Spells appealed to me because it explores the magic of words. Whether it's a poem or an incantation, they have much in common and all words have power. I liked the sense of creating magic by speaking the poems aloud - for what is that if not an incantation, a spell? As I spent over twenty years writing spells poems in one way or another, be it for books, music or magazines, I was drawn to the spell-speaker power of this book and found it to be quite enchanting.
As you read, you will find the melody in the words, the musicality of the stanzas. Again, it is a good example of the fine line between poetry, music and lyrics. But then the author told us tonight that his main inspirations are Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight, so it's not surprising his work has a touch of bardic music about it.
He also gave us several readings of his work, which was very enjoyable and entertaining. I especially liked his rendition of Jackdaw, in his softly spoken Received Pronunciation. He has the kind of voice that is perfect for readings and bedtime stories. Even in normal conversation , he speaks poetically and builds landscapes with his words, comparing a forest of birch trees to a barcode as he was 'driving through grey half-light'. Just beautiful!
I always enjoy being taught by our Visiting Professors from Oxford and Cambridge as they do bring the magic of those Universities with them and their classes are always full. This is what people mean when the say that University will open doors for you. I have met so many people - authors, agents, Fellows and Professors - that I would never have had the opportunity to meet had I not been a Masters student and it is one of the most valuable things I've experienced so far in over seven years of studying. When such authors and prestigious Professors and Fellows venture north, they are sprinkling their magic on all of us in class - you just can't get that anywhere else. I hope Robert Macfarlane comes to teach us again at some point as his class tonight was brilliant. And if you love magic and poetry and art, then you will love The Lost Spells too.
Enjoy!
BB Marie x
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