I've always loved the movie (and the book), The Amazing Mr Blunden (the book originally called "The Ghosts", in which children from the past, seeking help in the present, take a herbal brew and move to their future, and the children (related to them) of the present day (the movie's present day) take the same and go back 100 years to try and prevent the tragedy that cost the children of the past, and the gardener's boy, their loves.
In once scene, on one night, by the intervention of some supernatural agency that the children do not understand, they are led to the library of the house. There they find a book containing the recipe for a charm – 'A Charm To Move The Wheel of Time'. By brewing the infusion and drinking it, the children will be able to move through time to find the help they need.
I wrote the following poem in 16 August 2004, and it has an interesting history. It was on a much older website of mine (now long defunct) but someone emailed me because they had seen it, connected it with the film, and wondered if mine was based on some literary or folklore original on which the book drew, rather than the other way around!
A Charm to Move The Wheel of Time
There is a charm to bend the line of fate
This must be so, the need be truly great
Trust be given of one life for another
As if for kinship of sister or of brother
Subtle herbs can brew a drink to loose
Bonds of fate, make present time diffuse
So the charm can move the wheel of time
Roll back into decades past, another clime
Through the still point at the very centre
Of the wheel, the path by which we enter
One time from another, and thereby change
The path of history fixed as if arranged
As ghosts from the present in past lands
Take apart and weave such different strands.
In once scene, on one night, by the intervention of some supernatural agency that the children do not understand, they are led to the library of the house. There they find a book containing the recipe for a charm – 'A Charm To Move The Wheel of Time'. By brewing the infusion and drinking it, the children will be able to move through time to find the help they need.
I wrote the following poem in 16 August 2004, and it has an interesting history. It was on a much older website of mine (now long defunct) but someone emailed me because they had seen it, connected it with the film, and wondered if mine was based on some literary or folklore original on which the book drew, rather than the other way around!
A Charm to Move The Wheel of Time
There is a charm to bend the line of fate
This must be so, the need be truly great
Trust be given of one life for another
As if for kinship of sister or of brother
Subtle herbs can brew a drink to loose
Bonds of fate, make present time diffuse
So the charm can move the wheel of time
Roll back into decades past, another clime
Through the still point at the very centre
Of the wheel, the path by which we enter
One time from another, and thereby change
The path of history fixed as if arranged
As ghosts from the present in past lands
Take apart and weave such different strands.
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