“When given a choice
between you and them
choose you.
It’s better to be whole and alone
than broken at their feet.”

— Atticus

The Truth About Magic

By Atticus

You all know me, I love poetry! I ordered this book in time to get it as soon as it was released, and I am so glad I did. I spent a truly magical morning tangled up in bedsheets, listening to rain fall and reading his poems out loud to myself. Seriously, if you don’t read poetry, you should.

Why this book?

As you may remember from “My Favourite Books” list and my speech “My Relationship with Poetry”, Atticus is one of my all time favourite poets. So, when he announced earlier this year that he was coming out with a new collection of poetry, I knew I was going to get it. And there was absolutely no question on my mind: I was going to be telling all of you about it as well.

What is this book about?

Perhaps this is an unusual question to ask about a book of poetry, but poetry, perhaps more than anything else, is always about something. Atticus’s poetry often centres around themes of life and love, and in this collection, he really focused in on capturing the magic life with his words. Helpfully for me, he has even broken his book into themed sections: Youth, Love, Adventure, Her, Darkness, Words, and Stars.

My thoughts on this book

I loved it! It was absolutely everything I hoped it would be.

Atticus continues to be able to capture my heart and my imagination with his words. And each poem in this book, coupled with his photography, really was a little piece of magic.

Atticus is gifted in observing the minutia of a scene, or a moment, and then expressing it in a way that makes the reader feel as though they are in that moment with him, experiencing it alongside him. The result is that we feel the highs and lows of love, we see the beauty of a girl dancing in starlight and revel in her laugh. His joy in Paris and Rome and Brooklyn becomes our joy, and his desire to sip wine on stormy nights because our desire.

His poetry is so electric and alive, and so warm and comforting, that I always come away ready to embrace all the messy beauty that is life.

How this book affected me

This book was a breath of fresh air, as well as a deep dive into the magic and mystery of life. This book, as the two books Atticus has released before, helped me to slow down, to breathe in deep and be present in each moment of joy, and pain, and beauty. And with his reminders to open my eyes and see, I am also inspired to write more poems of my own. Some of them in answer to his poems, some of them about things I’ve tried because one of his poems challenged me, and some of them just because I’m seeing things fresh and it needs to be spoken.

There is a calmness to the poetry in this book, and it is a calmness I need when my anxiety is playing up or my CFS is flaring. So, thank you, Atticus.

Did you know…

It would be remiss of me to talk about “The Truth About Magic” without mentioning Atticus’s beautiful, and heart wrenching dedication:

This book is dedicated to Alina.
A girl I never knew
who died in my arms.
- Atticus

Atticus shares the story behind this dedication in this post on his Instagram.

In summary, Alina was a big fan of Atticus’s. When she was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, her friend Jess reached out to Atticus to ask if she could get an early copy of the audiobook - Alina was not expected to survive to the release date. Atticus flew out to spend a day with Alina and her family, reading poetry and hearing stories about Alina’s life. She died while he was with her, and his book is dedicated to her.

A book of Alina’s poetry, “Magic Whispers”, is available of Amazon, and I am very much looking forward to getting a copy and reading it for myself.