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Cernunnos by Dan Thompson
The hunting horn
and antlered head
the wildest ride
against the sky
the Hunting Lord
abroad tonight
so come inside
stay safe and warm
the fire abides
and keeps off harm.
You hear the hooves
you hear the dogs
the flashing stag
outruns them all
the oldest game
so deathly real
so come inside
and rest awhile
before your final
weary mile.
Before the farms
and settled life
our lot in life
was this
tonight:
to kill
or die.
The choice we made
could only push
time back a day
for in the end
he comes for all
the hunter thus
becomes the kill.
So take the time
to get some rest
whene’er you feel
the time is best
for all too soon
the hunt is o’er
the darkened moon
laid in the west
and we are gone
and hunt no more.
Bio
Dan Thompson (PhD) is a U.S. Army veteran and former journal editor whose creative and critical work has appeared in a wide range of literary and scholarly journals, including, within the past year, issues of Feral, Canary, Eclectica, The Raven Review, The Good Life Review, Black Coffee Review, Rat’s Ass Review, and Jerry Jazz Musician, among others. In an earlier life, he worked as a music producer for educational videos and as a disc jockey at a country music radio station.
Author's note
Cernunnos was an ancient Celtic god, represented as wearing the antlers of a stag. Although there are numerous visual representations of this deity, not a great deal is known about him. Generally, he is thought to represent “nature” – natural flora and fauna, as well as speed and fertility.
The poem focuses on “the hunt” specifically – on speed, virility, and killing – rather than on the domestic aspects that Cernunnos is sometimes also claimed to represent.
The poem moves quickly; the lines are short and there is a pronounced rhythm – hooves, running feet, the chase.
The third and fourth stanzas are really just one stanza that has been purposely broken – the first half of it constituted by shortened lines that lead (very roughly) to a point: “to kill or die” – the broken stanza indicating an interrupted life, with “die” followed by a period (a “full stop” indeed).
