Maybelieve

One from the back catalogue today. This was written on 5th March 2007, when Annie and myself would set each other titles for poems for the coming week, and we'd read them to each other at the weekend.

This one draws a lot from Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea stories, and the idea that when we really change the world, be it Earthsea or our own world, we can risk upsetting the balance, the equilibrium, of the natural world. There's also a fair bit of Aristotle there as well.

Maybelieve

The Master Hand took the jewel,

Spoke softly the illusion spell,

And made it appear a flower;

This was his art, his power:

To change the appearance,

And fool the beholders sense,

Make it seeming now a flame,

Ruby red and bright. The name

Is the key to the art, the word

Changes outer form, not inward

Essence, and transubstantiate

Matter. This is a steady state:

The true name remains, in art,

Unchanged, one thing, one part

Of the world; the great balance

Of the substance and accidence

Must be kept, or else to change

The world could instead derange

Equilibrium. Power must follow

Knowledge, serve need, and so

Keep the boundaries of the act,

Lest reality distort, be cracked,

Beyond the alchemy to repair:

That all will end in dark despair;

To light a candle, cast a shadow,

This is the maybelieve we know.