Sue Mackrell is a poet, workshop leader and creative project organiser, based in Leicestershire. She has researched and written extensively about a range of aspects of Leicestershire history and heritage, and has worked with all sort of groups from the County.\u00a0 So I was delighted when she sent me this poem about Bradgate Park.\u00a0 I know it’s not October any more, but this is still a brilliantly evocative poem.\u00a0 Thanks to Sue for permission to post it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bradgate Stags<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Magnificent in gold October light,<\/p>\n
a crowned stag in autumn rut,<\/p>\n
full rack of antler, twelve tined,<\/p>\n
thick maned ruff spiked with mud,<\/p>\n
impressive mass of muscled neck.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
With the gait and stance of a conqueror, he<\/p>\n
paws the ground, roars, guttural,<\/p>\n
sniffing, strutting, gauging the strength<\/p>\n
of his rival, locking antlers clashing<\/p>\n
with elemental potency.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An atavistic appeal to primeval instincts,<\/p>\n
shamanism and shape changing,<\/p>\n
ancient masks and Mummers\u2019 plays,<\/p>\n
a Horn Dance, clash of wooden staves,<\/p>\n
antlered heads invoking<\/p>\n
Herne the Hunter, Pan the Horned God,<\/p>\n
Cernunnos, god of the wildwood,<\/p>\n
still surviving in transgressive rituals<\/p>\n
of Stag Night revels.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sue Mackrell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sue Mackrell is a poet, workshop leader and creative project organiser, based in Leicestershire. She has researched and written extensively about a range of aspects of Leicestershire history and heritage, and has worked with all sort of groups from the County.\u00a0 So I was delighted when she sent me this poem about Bradgate Park.\u00a0 IRead more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":515,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[11,8,12,4],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bradgate-park","category-poetry","tag-deer","tag-leicestershire","tag-pagan","tag-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/515"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44\/revisions\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lboro.ac.uk\/poetinthepark\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}