Poem: Mr. Macklin's Jack O'Lantern

Mr. Macklin takes his knife
And carves the yellow pumpkin face:
Three holes bring eyes and nose to life,
The mouth has thirteen teeth in place.
Then Mr. Macklin just for fun
Transfers the corn-cob pipe from his
Wry mouth to Jack’s, and everyone
Dies laughing! O what fun it is
Till Mr. Macklin draws the shade
And lights the candle in Jack’s skull.
Then all the inside dark is made
As spooky and as horrorful
As Halloween, and creepy crawl
The shadows on the tool-house floor,
With Jack’s face dancing on the wall.
O Mr. Macklin! where's the door?

                    David McCord 

Ghosts

Behind every man now alive stand 30 ghosts,
    for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living.

                    Arthur C. Clarke, forward to 2001: A Space Odyssey

 

 

 

 

 

Wonder

Concepts create idols;
    only wonder comprehends anything.
People kill one another over idols.
    Wonder makes us fall to our knees.

                Saint Gregory Of Nyssa

 

 

 

 

 

Something wicked this way comes

Macbeth     Act 4, Scene 1

[A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder. Enter the three Witches]

First Witch: Thrice the brinded cat hath mewed.

Second Witch: Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.

Third Witch: Harpier cries, 'Tis time, 'tis time.

First Witch:
Round about the cauldron go;
In the poisoned entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one:
Sweltered venom, sleeping got.
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.

All:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
 

Second Witch
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble.

All:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Third Witch:
Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
Witches' mummy, maw and gulf
Of the ravined salt-sea shark,
Root of hemlock digged i' the dark,
Liver of blaspheming Jew,
Gall of goat, and slips of yew
Slivered in the moon's eclipse,
Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
Finger of birth-strangled babe
Ditch-delivered by a drab,
Make the gruel thick and slab.
Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,
For the ingredients of our cauldron.

All:
Double, double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

Second Witch:
Cool it with a baboon's blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.

[Enter Hecate, goddess of witchcraft]

Hecate:
O well done. I commend your pains,
And every one shall share i' the gains.
And now about the cauldron sing,
Like elves and fairies in a ring,
Enchanting all that you put in.

[Music and a song, Hecate retires]

Second Witch:
By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whoever knocks.

            William Shakespeare

Alchemy

MAGIC, n.     An art of converting superstition into coin.

                      There are other arts serving the same high purpose,
                      but the discreet lexicographer does not name them.

                                    Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

 

 

 

 

The path of magic

If you choose magic you will never be able to return to the life you once lived.
Your world may be more … exciting … but it will also be more dangerous. Less reliable.
And once you begin to walk the path of magic, you can never step off of it.
Or you can choose the path of science, of rationality.
Live in a normal world. Die a normal death.
Less exciting, undoubtedly. But safer. …
It is your choice Timothy. Always and forever your choice.

            Neil Gaimann, The Books of Magic: The Road to Nowhere

 

 

 

 

 

Scarcity

We have just enough religion to make us hate,
        but not enough to make us love one another.

                Jonathan Swift, Thoughts on Various Subjects from Miscellanies