The word
‘thaumaturgy’ — literally ‘miracle-working’, although often used synonymously
with ‘sorcery’ and ‘magic’ — was introduced into English by the Anglo-Welsh
mathematician and alchemist John Dee, in his 1570 volume Mathematicall Praeface to Euclid's
Elements. (Dee, incidentally, was also the
first person to use the term ‘British Empire’, but let’s not hold that against
him.)
John Dee used ‘thaumaturgy’ in reference to an ‘art
mathematical’: the construction of new devices of such mechanical and
mathematical complexity that, to those ignorant of their workings, they would
seem to be magical in origin — perhaps diabolical. Dee and others like him suffered
many accusations of collusion with evil spirits.
Throughout history, works of strict literary constraint have
similarly been associated with mystical forces, both daemonic and divine. Palindromes
have been found on pagan and Christian amulets; the Greek palindrome ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ (“wash thy sins, not only thy face”) adorns the baptismal font of Hagia
Sophia. The Kabbalistic systems of gematria, notarikon and temurah variously employ
anagrammatic, tautogrammatic, cryptogrammic and numerological rules (these systems
were originally created to decipher esoteric biblical truths, but practitioners
of black magic have since used them to devise ceremonial magics supposedly capable
of conjuring and controlling daemons...).
Over the years, I
have written numerous constraint-based poems, and it seems there’s still plenty
of apparent ‘magic’ left in these formal restrictions — even to less
superstitious, contemporary minds: My lettristic manipulations on Twitter are often
met with light-hearted (I trust) accusations of witchcraft and wizardry. The celebrated
magician Penn Jillette very kindly provided a blurb for my October 2019
full-length collection Stray Arts (and Other Inventions) (out now from Penteract
Press!). And a Mexican friend recently dubbed me El Brujo, which is a
far cooler sobriquet than I have ever deserved.
Stray Arts is a collection of my ‘biggest’ poetic experiments, employing a variety
of restrictions, often in combination — palindromic sonnets; palindromes that
are perfect anagrams of each other; different styles of palindrome; and sequences
of formal anagrams.... The piling on of constraints has, I like to think,
something of stage magic about it: reveal upon reveal; wow upon wow. It results
from a similar mentality to that of the magician: laborious, intricate
planning, relentless practise and preparation, all for a single scene, a single
moment, designed to dazzle — and, of course, for the implicitly invited
question, How was it done?
Thaumaturgy, my new above/ground press chapbook, features less layered applications
of literary constraint. Rather than extravagant stage magic, it presents a
potpourri of mystical fragments; delicate, crystalline incantations; small visions,
transmuted by an art mathematical.
Included are
various forms of palindrome, such as these meditations on the crew of Apollo
11; the first stanza is palindromic by letter, the second by pairs of letters,
and the third by blocks of three letters:
Neil A.:
NASA peer.
Craft
far,
creep
as an alien.
Char sea.
Run,
ally Aldrin!
Skies,
kind, rally a lunar search....
Oil, kit,
daring
wander....
Collins:
outer soul.
In
colder, waning dark,
I
toil.
The chapbook also
features lipograms of various kinds. There are triolets and small sonnets. And
there are a number of anagram-poems, including this suitably Dee-esque
alchemical sermon:
There's magic in
blood:
A sober, demonic
light
directs
haemoglobin —
This iron became
gold.
I hope John Dee
would approve. He lived in a time when science and magic were, in many
respects, one and the same. I like to think a remnant of that synthesis
persists in constraint-based poetry.
Many thanks to rob mclennan and above/ground press for publishing Thaumaturgy. Copies are still
available! Please order and, I hope, feel inspired to compose your own incantations....
Anthony Etherin
March 2020
Anthony Etherin is an experimental formalist poet, a publisher, and a musician. For
more of his poetry, find him on Twitter, @Anthony_Etherin, and via
anthonyetherin.wordpress.com