‘Dive in Freedom’ Elena Caldera
The Good are attracted by men’s perceptions/And think not for themselves/Till experience teaches them to catch/And cage the fairies and the elves.
William Blake
Once upon a time sorcery was science.
Thunder and lightning were divine.
When sick people sought to be cured
They looked for magical signs.
The lungwort looked just like lung tissue
So it was thought good for the chest.
The world followed an other-worldly plan
And the devil took care of the rest.
Astronomers made maps of God’s mind
By joining up all the stars
To make a celestial menagerie
Of scorpions and bears.
Everything’s still a bewildering ferment:
Atoms seethe within a full stop.
A thought can transport you to freedom;
The future hides in a raindrop.
While we wonder whether computers think
Or whether submarines can swim
The demons of irrational chaos choose
To tear us from limb to limb.
But if the world is firewalled by wonder
It can serve as the world’s protection.
A small child’s belief in fairies is an oasis
That’s long watered the imagination.
A compound in the soil raises serotonin.
The earth’s magic heightens wonder.
The spirit of place can be concreted over
Yet it returns in one form or other.
Heathcote Williams