Horsehead Fiddle, by John Delaney

Horsehead Fiddles, photography by John Delaney (USA) contemporary

​Horsehead Fiddle

He draws the bow across the horse-hair strings.
There’re only two, of male and female hairs
plucked from the tails of stallions and mares.
Back and forth, slow and fast, the sound box sings;

then its trapezoidal wooden form drones.
Where has it searched and how has it found
such earthly moans as if from underground?
And then uprise these deep and throaty tones.

Over the steppes, the horse and the rider,
in galloping, trotting, cantering pace--
as up and down this neck the fingers race,
close together, pressing down, then wider--

cover the distance till the soul is fed.
And orchestrating all, a horse’s head.

John Delaney

Author's note: The horsehead fiddle (morin khuur) is the national instrument of Mongolia, a symbol of peace and tranquility, and love of the horse. Each home is expected to display one even if no one in the household can play it.

​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."