The Sphere, by John Delaney

Stone Sphere, Diquis Culture (Costa Rica) c. 500-1500 AD. Photography by John Delaney.

The Sphere
 
Sculpted by other rocks, polished with sand--
but why was this sphere made perfectly round,
ready to roll in any direction?
Will wonders never cease? And men astound?
 
I think of a man looking at the moon
one night, wanting to bring it down to Earth,
to lay his hands on it and run them over
its glowing skin. What would that be worth?
 
He had experience with stone and chose
to shape a replica, from his mind’s eye,
of simple beauty in well-roundedness,
to imitate the full moon in the sky.
 
And he would let it sit or make it roll,
following each twist and turn of his soul.
 
John Delaney

The stone spheres of Costa Rica are attributed to the extinct Diquís culture. Most were sculpted from the hard igneous rock granodiorite, dating from around 500 to 1500 A.D., before the arrival of the Spanish. Their exact significance is uncertain.

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 Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of my son Andrew’s photographs and my poems, Nile (2024), a chapbook of poems and photographs about Egypt, Filing Order: Sonnets (2025), and CATechisms (2025), poems and photographs about my senior cat."