Stranger in the Mask of a Deer (Richard Skelton)

‘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.”’
(Penned in the Margins)

 

‘This is an incredibly moving, essential meditation on where we have come from, where we are, and where we are headed.’
(Kerri Ní Dochartaigh)

 

‘I’ve been submerging myself into this book slowly, like a dip into an icy mountain pool. It's unique, intriguing, transporting.’
(Rebecca Wragg Sykes)

 

‘A mesmeric, conceptual book-length poem about deep history, time, life & land.’
(SJ Fowler)

 

‘This poetic sequence facilitates a re-membering of our awareness through a renewal of the vocabulary of the spirit; an essential step to repairing our relationship with nature and all sentient life.’
(Paralibrum)

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 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.

 

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Read excerpts (PDF).