Deer Diaries

by Judith Stanton

Overview

Judith Stanton's Deer Diaries celebrate fawns, does, bucks, birds, a renegade coyote, a special turtle and snail, and a glittering albino doe throughout the seasons. Luminous poems for nature lovers. One by one, day after day, these wild creatures showed up on Judith's farm, inviting her to record their daily lives. Each event in every poem happened, really. Judith was riding her beloved horse Winston when they came across the fawn in the pasture. She was driving into town to buy groceries when the albino doe leaped across the road. The three-legged doe was the bravest deer she ever observed, and felt like her friend. Deer Diaries has been for Judith what writers call a gift book. From the moment she wrote "The Three-Legged Doe," all the other poems fell into place. Deer she'd watched for decades consorted to reveal themselves at every hour of the day and night, throughout the seasons of the year. For some of the lightest quietest poems, they just showed up. The tragedies, too, stock and staple of lives lived wild. She was so privileged to have the time, place, and freedom to chronical the daily lives of the wildlife on her farm--their quirks, humor, resilience, courage. Friends who've read Deer Diaries say without fail that now when they drive our county roads, with deer liable to dart out at any moment, they drive more carefully. May you drive more carefully on your roads too. Judith published five historical romance novels and a contemporary equestrian suspense before discovering a new passion in writing about the natural world on her own farm. She also edited The Letters of Charlotte Smith, and is nominated for a Distinguished Alumna award at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635340815
Publisher:	Finishing Line Press
Publication date:	01/06/2017
Pages:	42
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.10(d)

About the Author

Scholar and novelist Judith Stanton invites readers into Deer Diaries, her first collection of poetry. As a scholar, she edited The Letters of Charlotte Smith, a definitive edition that helped restore Smith's reputation as the first Romantic poet and has garnered Stanton the 2017 Distinguished Aluma Award at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A romantic herself, Stanton published four historical romance novels, Wild Indigo and His Stolen Bride with HarperCollins and The Mad Marquis and The Kissing Gate with Leisure Books and Montlake Press. Recently she published her first equestrian suspense, A Stallion to Die For, with her own Cat Crossing Press. Stanton gets much of her inspiration from her farm. Several years ago, on again seeing the three-legged doe grazing under the massive white oak outside her study, she wrote a poem about that doe's courage, releasing her decades-long closet poet to find a new voice and a new mission-documenting the lives of the deer she sees every day on her farm, birds, squirrels, and a very special turtle and snail. Deer Diaries has been for Stanton what authors call a gift book. From the moment she wrote "The Three-Legged Doe," deer she'd watched for decades consorted with her to show her more of their daily lives from comic moments to tragic ones, stock and staple of lives lived wild. Stanton was privileged to have the time, place, and freedom to learn their quirks, humor, resilience, and courage. Friends who've read Deer Diaries tell her without fail that now when they drive their county roads, with deer liable to dart out at any moment, they drive more carefully. May you drive more carefully on your roads too.

Table of Contents

Snapshots 1
The Three-legged Doe 3
Snow Forecast 4
Perigee Moon 5
Mothers' Daze 6
First Fawn 7
Lone Fawn 9
What the Turtle Knows 10
What the Snail Wants 11
April Aftermath 12
Deer Scat 13
The Lone Fawn Speaks 14
Fawn Tag 15
Summer Morning Drive to Town 16
Twin Fawns 17
Little Brown Bird 18
Flat Out 19
The Critic 20
Back Atcha 21
Country Roads
1. Curve 22
2. Ditch 23
3. Hill 24
Persimmon Tree 25
Fall Falling 27
Pearl 28
Cathedral 30

Editorial Reviews

Reminiscent of the pastoral Frost, of Mary Oliver, and of Verlyn Klinkenborg's take on the rural life, these poems/meditations are cast in elegant language that nevertheless doesn't pretty up what it represents.
Richard Terrill, Coming Late to Rachmaninoff

I admire Stanton's close attention to a natural world that includes various kinds of trees and grasses, turtles, snails, horses, squirrels, and a variety of birds, a world that is also spiritual, one with fall leaves becoming "a kaleidoscope of stained glass" and birds "warbling Worship, here." Stanton's poems repeatedly remind us of the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Peter Makuck, Long Lens

A splendid collection. I thought each poem I was reading must be my favorite.
Catharine Roth, Parts of the Whole

From the Publisher