The Marauder’s Map (of London)

Tags

Art, harry potter, maps, marauders map, oh no look what mike's done now

Trusty and Wellbeloved Reader,

I’ve always enjoyed making presents rather than buying them, so – when it came to making a present for a certain lover of Harry Potter – I thought it was time to take a crack at something I’d always wanted to do – a marauders map, but of an actual place.

Therefore, kind reader, here is a little piece of work that I called The London Map.

The outside of the map was very much based on the marauders map, with only a little wording changed here and there. If I’d had more time I’d have made the towers here reference my little history of London’s gates.

So the outside was simple enough – I had a pretty good template from the actual map – but producing London as per the hands of Mooney, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs was a much more interesting prospect.

Opening the map reveals a complex array of lines of text in different scripts and sizes running across the paper.

 

Once expanded the map is almost a meter across, stretching from St James’s Park in the West to the Tower of London in the East. 

A few landmarks appear with smaller names, hidden among the scribbled streets.

In other places some more unexpected landmarks appear.

Ultimately, what a great fun project – next up… Aberystwyth?

Adieu, kind Reader.

 

Wintery Rhymes

Tags

oh no look what mike's done now, poems, Poetry

Propelled Reader,

Yes, wintery can be spelled that way.

The Reader will allow me pause to put my odd attempts at poetic creativity here – not every blog post can be as interesting as others – and, now that I’ve been allowed this dull pause in interesting content, go and find something more interesting to read.

To the Happy West

I wandered by the waves last night
  In many a pleasant dream;
A youthful moon shone proud and bright
  And I within his beam
  But it was just a dream.

I felt the salt air in my heart
  And breathed the winter shore.
And thought that time would never part
  Those happy days before
  That stand up here no more.

The happy west, the conq’ring sea –
  These things I’ll breath again –
But there are hearts of lads like me
  That pine for them in vane
  And shall not come again.

Their hearts were willing long ago
  But clay makes good men still:
These dancing spirits wander so
  But time will cure what’s ill
  When I’ll go west and still.

Sunrise, 2016

The sheen of dawn
That ran aground
On the high idle mountain
Coloured the waiting room of stars
For a moment red
And newborn.
And the banners of darling things:
The diamond starlight
And baleful moon
Turned out,
And, done into nothing,
Poured down bronze
From out the autumn of the night
Into the bright rising spring
Of day.

A Tired Old Year

“That rhyme’s as broken as the rest of the world.”

  Big Ben strikes
Four and five and six.
He showers the evening down
And mocks at England’s politics:
The thorn of state and crown.

  The world shakes –
Another modern fear –
And happy news a tinderbox
To help it burn more clear.
Still turn those senseless clocks.

  Time and time again
Repeats old history
Philosophers mock at societies lot
And says’t no mystery –
Who wins or not.

  No, for sure
‘Tis clear as Bow bell’s chime
Evil asks only good does naught
And now’s its time –
How joy was short.

  But hope –
Lads, that’s an honest cure
Let’s not forget our friends
And when the world lays all unsure
We’ll work for better ends.

Night, 2016

Heaven transcendent
Crouched over a void of tears
That dribbled out
Towards the hue-forsaken west
And into a colourless tribute
Among newborn stars.

“There comes, you know,”
Spoke those time agnostic lights
“A day when dawns will be made of ash
“And dreams counted out
“When all things are up and done.”

The west sighed
And breezes from the bosom of home
Trembled forgotten things.
Charging good health
And happy days
And ignorant joys.
And starlight distant
Employed in their immaculate heaven
Mocked the quiet ambitions of man.

The trees breathed out together
And under the quiet reigns of night
And happy chords of heaven
Echoed those night wind stars again
“Beds of mould
And finite smiles
Are no comfort in this bleak eternity.
Starlight fades
And empty lungs
Tell no histories here.”

Adieu, dearest Reader.