HARRY POTTER AND THE NORTHERN LINE

David Selzer By David Selzer4 Comments1 min read687 views

The timetabled rumble of the Northern Line

between King’s Cross and Euston stations

moves beneath the British Library’s

‘Harry Potter: A History of Magic’.

Aficionados like my granddaughter

are oblivious, focused on the wonder

of ancient texts and modern images,

the alchemy of ink, pigments, alphabets

transformed into art. Between trains there is

the clip-clopping of Centaur’s hooves.

 

We walk to King’s Cross to see Platform

9¾. People are queuing

to take selfies beneath the sign attached

to the wall next to The Harry Potter shop.

As famous in her lifetime as Dickens

in his, J.K. Rowling is a diligent,

erudite genius, creator of

a universal, compassionate brand.

 

In the deepest, darkest Library stack

my two volumes sleep, the second – even

slimmer than the first – dedicated

to my granddaughter. Every fifteen minutes

or so the pages stir. They can hear

the steady beat of Hippogriff wings.

 

 

 

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4 Comments
  • John Huddart
    May 25, 2018

    Dickens, Rowling and Selzer. Three names that catch the breath! Are already in the Pantheon. And know their stations.

  • Ashen
    May 25, 2018

    Lovely spacious reflections. Your granddaughter is a lucky girl. And how special, to find her granddad’s poems in the British Library, dedicated to her.

  • Catherine Reynolds
    May 25, 2018

    An enchanting poem straddling the adult world and that of children, the ancient and the modern, the mundane and the mystical. X

  • Kevin Dyer
    May 26, 2018

    I like this very much, the layers of sound, the dovetailing of three writers. And the little girl just interested in what she’s interested in – magic in the midst of the everyday.