A trilogy! Even being a trilogy was magical And those thin-lined maps Delicate as Satie's signature Like you stumbled on a secret And you’d start each reading Whether in a cushioned nook Or a bus seat Window streaked with stormy rain Or a sofa, or in your comfy bed You’d start by cracking it open and smelling The elixir of pulp and ink like it was a ticket Made from ancient perfumes Alice’s mushrooms Charlie’s ticket, but not to a building, To another world! And you’d land in a cave or forest Often at a dining table attended by A smorgasbord of delightful creatures Eating Elf-bread or Dwarf-stews You could feel the glow of the fireplace On your cheeks reflected in the twinkling Eyes of actual wizards! But not these days O, pity the children of now! As they turn on odorless televisions Using harsh remotes Punching in pin numbers Or on mobile rectangles with plastic Pills shoved in ears Constantly pausing for notifications Imaginations cancelled as they are dictated How each creature should look Amazed how so many of them resemble Characters from sitcoms and magazine ads And infinity is squashed into set times And fantasy into CGI And singular vision into focus groups And we are Mordor We are the goblin Gollums The corporation’s precious Fought over for clicks and data Until all joy, all childlike wonder Has been parcelled into units of sale And somewhere in our distances Sauron laughs in triumph
My young adult novel, Langdimania, is on sale now on Amazon and in UK bookshops. It’s not a trilogy, but it has aspirations!
I love reading from books. And I love Langdimania. I read it a few years ago - I couldn’t put it down! It’s one of those stories to read more than once. It’s time to read it again.