If You Like Romance, Rainstorms and Shipwrecks, and Notes on Hotel Stationery
Useless Magic by Florence Welch
VIOLETS’ PICKS 005
Where I Found It
I’d been doing my research and so far hadn’t been incredibly impressed by celebrity poetry collections. The best out of the bunch so far was Lana Del Rey’s Violets Bending Backwards Over the Grass but it left me wanting more, as if the collection wasn’t fully thought through, just literally a collection in the loosest sense of the term. But maybe that’s the point: she’s a celebrity, someone who managed to turn an affinity for lyrical language into a very successful career. She doesn’t need to prove anything. This is just a side project. I’d pretty much written off celebrity poetry but was at the library when I came across Useless Magic, a poetry book by Florence and the Machine frontwoman Florence Welch.
First Impressions
Like a spell book, its cover a textured burgundy red with an illustrated rendition of what looks like an exploding heart, its contents bursting into flame. Is it wearing a floral pageant sash? The handwritten type is in a muted gold. Fitting for a book with a title like “Useless Magic”. The title itself: evocative. Magic, so wonderful, but in the end, useless. Nothing will keep us alive nor shield us from the necessity of love and living.
They Said It
It’s a book with scrapbook-like charm that offers a tantalizing glimpse into the mind and creative process of a woman whose self-expression is fiercely compelling.
—From Porter
Lines to remember
No light, no light in your bright blue eyes I never knew daylight could be so violent A revelation in the light of day You can't choose what stays and what fades away —From “No light no light”
We were light and paper-thin And when we first came here We were cold and we were clear With no colours in our skin Till we let the spectrum in —From “Spectrum”
Did I build a ship to wreck —From “Ship to Wreck”
Crafted from Renaissance stone Mostly these days I write poetry on my phone. I wish I had more of your staunch American character, Strong, bold, and unflinching, like the desert, or a New York skyscraper. But I am more like the English weather Unpredictable and ever changing, Prone to downpours. Battered by sudden winds - thin-skinned, eye-bagged and always cold, Proud and leaking. Did you think you would give birth to such an English creature, With your warm American blood. I just found a picture of me Drunk in a corridor with Liza Minnelli, Waiting for Lady Gaga to go on stage. I make songs to tie people to me, With a ribbon of fantasy around their necks Such a beautiful bow That I hold in my fist. And will not let go. —From “American Mother”
You might like this if…
You’re the type to feel things viscerally and in your body, from your lungs to your bones. You live for romance, the entire spectrum of it from thunderous highs to lulling lows. You might have a thing for period dramas, the spectacle of it all. Also, fairy tales and nursery rhymes and modern hauntings: the darker the better. And it goes without saying, you’ll love this if you’re a fan of Florence and the Machine. This is one shade, a deeper more intimate shade, of one of the most successful genre-bending musical artists today.
This was the colour of…
Red, red, red. Every shade of red: magenta to burgundy to crimson. Deep blue seas and inks. Veins of the body, before breath and after. The bruise of falling in love. The electric hot pink of unabashed romance. The glittering gold of fame. The paper beige of hotel stationery.
Details
Year: 2018
Author: Florence Welch, whose moniker while starting the band Florence and the Machine was “Florence Robot” (her bandmate, Isabel, was the “Machine”)
Location: London
Publisher: Crown Archetype c/o Penguin Random House
You’re reading Violets’ Picks, where every Sunday I take you through an adventure brought to you by a poetry collection. Here’s some other Violets’ Picks this month you may have missed:
