Red Deer: Poems

by Anne Marie Macari

These poems delve deep within the earth, exploring the prehistoric caves of France and Spain, communing with the lives and art of those who once inhabited them. Macari connects us with a distant past, with "memory / stumbling into mineral stillness. . .a forgotten animal / across my shoulders.” This fourth collection, by the author of Ivory Cradle, unearths a hidden prehistoric world of art and art-makers. Anne Marie Macari delves deep within the earth, exploring the prehistoric caves of France and Spain, communing with the lives and art of those who once inhabited them.  Writing from a variety of perspectives and in diverse voices, Macari connects us with a distant past, with "memory / stumbling into mineral stillness. . .a forgotten animal / across my shoulders.”

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2015

About the author

Anne Marie Macari is an American poet. Her most recent book is She Heads Into the Wilderness. Her first book won The APR/Honickman First Book Prize in Poetry.

Reviews

[abigail fathauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I’ve tried to climb / down, through the painted doors, as though / the floor would open, merciful, into a pool / of memory, sheltered by the dead city / while I learn to know the animal / of myself, how to touch / the world, unashamed / in impossible red twilight, / thresholds all crossing.”

in “Red Deer,” Anne Marie Macari evokes the ancient, drawing upon prehistoric art and the people who made it. her poems oscillate between the ancient and the modern, connecting the two across thousands of years. as a huge fan of prehistory, i really enjoyed the imagery of Macari’s poems, as well as her references to cave paintings and prehistoric artifacts. ultimately, this poetry collection paints a vivid image of what it means to exist as a human being across time, and how art is intrinsic to who we are.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved Macari's Gloryland, so was excited to see her continuing to examine female bodies, and especially birth imagery, through the lens of ancient cave art in Red Deer. Access to much of this art is limited both because preservation efforts usually exclude casual tourists and because travel to these sites isn't cheap. So, I was thankful to experience these caverns and their artwork secondhand, through Macari's poems.

Themes of memory and extinction run through the poems, which often take on a dreamlike quality, but I was most struck by those that were less meditative and more visceral. "Where the Hand Leads," for instance, perfectly captures the sense of blindly groping in the dark, and "Red Cloak" is about as unnervingly embodied as a poem can get.

[Kasey Jueds · Rating 5 out of 5]

She's one of the bravest poets I know, and this book, in particular (though I've also loved the three that preceded it), feels as if it is about necessary things. The poems take up our relationship with the non-human animal world with such clear seeing and beauty and honesty. They manage to be both heartbreakingly sad and hopeful at the same time. AMM strikes me as a truly grown-up poet, in the best sense: the poems aren't interested in being impressive or showy (though they are gorgeously made, not a word wasted), they are interested in deep truths.

[Zoe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to be able to attend a reading by Anne Marie Macari last year at the Albany, CA library. Macari told the audience how she became passionate about caves and cave art and then wrote a book of poems on the subject. It's definitely a new take on the ekphrastic poem (poems based on works of art)! And the poems are so good. I read some of them aloud to a woman on hospice care and suddenly they took on a new and immediate significance.