Deer Stones, by John Delaney

Deer Stones, photography by John Delaney (USA) contemporary

Deer Stones

Don’t tell me what they mean or why they’re here,
popping up above the steppe’s horizon,
unapologetic, for attention,
surrounded by funereal mounds.

See: each bird-deer figure bounds
with elongated body and snout,
antlers scrolling, waving back and out,
flying towards the stars.

Oh spirits—restless just as ours--
heading out for heaven’s borders,
riding bareback on deer shoulders,
you left behind your bones.

Up you fled, divining from your tombstones
a wider realm to roam.
Now you’re home.
It’s so clear.

John Delaney

Author's note: Over 500 “deer stones” have been discovered across Northern Mongolia, representing art of the Dukha reindeer herding communities of the Late Bronze Age (1700-1400 B.C.).

​John Delaney: "After retiring as curator of historic maps at Princeton University Library, I moved out to Port Townsend, WA, and have traveled widely, preferring remote, natural settings. Since that transition, I’ve published Waypoints (2017), a collection of place poems, Twenty Questions (2019), a chapbook, Delicate Arch (2022), poems and photographs of national parks and monuments, and Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of my son Andrew’s photographs and my poems. Nile, a chapbook of poems and photographs about Egypt, appeared in May 2024."