Stranger in the Mask of a Deer
£9.99
‘Stranger in the Mask of a Deer’ conjures an elemental, dreamlike narrative set in the Late-Upper Palaeolithic, as the British peninsula was gradually reoccupied by humans (and animals) returning from the greater continent after the Ice Age. Skelton began the poem many years ago with the intention of exploring the history of Britain’s landscape, only for the text to transform into a kind of literary séance involving both human and other-than-human.
Stranger in the Mask of a Deer conjures an elemental, dreamlike narrative ranging from the present to the Late-Upper Palaeolithic, when the British peninsula was gradually reoccupied by humans and animals returning from the greater continent after the Ice Age.
Richard Skelton began this book-length poem many years ago with the intention of exploring the history of Britain’s landscape, only for the text to transform into a kind of literary seance, involving both human and other-than-human voices. Its transforming power lies in the accumulative magic of the word as ritual. Skelton’s is a mesmeric lyric, probing the edges of consciousness towards a place where ‘there are always presences / always inherences / things beyond sight.’
‘An incredibly moving, essential meditation on where we have come from, where we are, and where we are headed.’
Kerri nì Dochartaigh
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