by Jodene Wylie
In September of 2019, long before the world shut down from a pandemic, a sunset-covered book of poetry was released into the world, inspiring thoughts of love, magic, and adventure. Atticus, the usually masked poet and Instagram sensation, released The Truth About Magic as his third book of poetry following 2017’s Love Her Wild and 2018’s The Dark Between Stars.
As much as this is a book of poetry, it is also a book of photography and art. It is a visual experience, alongside a play of words and lyricism. The poems are interspersed and interwoven with images of the beach, nature in all its forms, fireworks, starlight, travel destinations like Paris, and most important to the book—human connection and experience. While the cover suggests a glorious sunset, the images inside are all in greyscale, as though one is reading the book through the night.
The Truth About Magic is broken into seven sections: Magic in Youth, Magic in Love, Magic in Adventure, Magic in Her, Magic in Darkness, Magic in Words, and Magic in Stars. These section titles infer the tone and topic of the poems found within, though the poems themselves seem to have a bit of a life of their own. Structurally, there is no consistent rhyme or metre between the poems – they each stand alone. At times the poems are arranged into the popular free verse style while others are a single line, or two or three. The font type changes as does the use of italics, bold, and capitalization, which each lend themselves to supporting the overall sentiment behind the text. The diversity amongst poem structure ensures that the reader does not fall into a lull reading the same metered stanza over and over again on repeat for 247 pages. It should also be noted that the poems do not have titles, therefore if you ever wanted to describe or share the poem you must in fact read or begin reading the poem, which forces the new reader to interact and engage with the words themselves.
As for the poems, the overarching theme tends to be love, while the tone and topic may change. I will also say that love is a broad term—not just between partners, but also for the self, as well as love towards hopes and dreams. The poems also explore people, their personalities, the actions they take, and the impact those actions have upon the poet. My favourite poems though are about Paris and what the poet describes as a “slow murmur of a Paris thought.” Perhaps because I am reading this during the latest lockdown I seem to connect most with thoughts on walking the Seine at sundown.
This is a lovely escapist read. It is visually appealing and the sentiments and ideas are strongly linked to the human condition. While the poems are not academically refined they are a genuine pleasure and frankly, we could all use a little more of that.