Drawing Down the Moon
My poem in this week's issue of The New Yorker
Dear Friends,
This week, I shared a post about the book I’ve been working on over the last few years. If you missed it, see below ⬇️
Your responses were tremendously generous. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
Today, I’d like to share a poem from my forthcoming collection that appears in this week’s issue of The New Yorker. And to tell you just a little bit about something called The Thessalian Trick, to which my poem alludes:
A few years ago, I read a fascinating study on the moon while overseeing a writing fellowship in Athens. The book focused on ancient Greek literature and lore, which is how I learned about something called The Thessalian Trick.
Associated with Thessaly, a region in northern Greece famed in antiquity for its witches and moon-drawers, the Thessalian Trick is an act of enchantment or illusion so convincing that it makes audiences believe they are seeing what isn’t truly there.
One such trick was drawing down the moon. It’s said that Thessalian women could draw the moon from the sky (literally or figuratively) through spells, mirrors, or incantations. The trick wasn’t necessarily “real” magic, but an optical illusion. Thessalian witches would place a bowl of water or polished mirror in such a way that the moon appeared trapped within it. Observers would see the moon reflected in the vessel and believe it had been physically lured down from the heavens.
One reason for doing this would be to delay something that needs to happen on a particular moon cycle. So, for instance, as the poem imagines: to delay paying a debt by drawing the moon down, so it cannot wax or wane.
I hope you enjoy this poem from If You Love That Lady. (More soon on pre-orders, etc.!)
xM
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"My poem in this week's issue of The New Yorker." Does it get any more New York that that? How many people get to say that???" :o
Well, you certainly brought the moon down this week! Full and fierce in the smooth November sky. And that last line is an arrow to the heart.