Some Deer

Vik Shirley

Book of the Month: January 2025

Reviewed by Sean Wai Keung

Some deer noticed the moon was dripping.

There was moon juice all over the forest.

Perhaps there was a leak, some of the deer suggested to each other in deer language.

So much of what draws readers to poetry is the ability of image and metaphor to convey otherwise unwritable things. How, then, to analyse poetry in which a time-travelling Robin Reliant appears for two lines before disappearing again? Or a poem whose ending line is simply a non-existent website address? While reading Some Deer, the latest publication from surrealist extraordinaire Vik Shirley and Broken Sleep Books, I found myself grasping for deeper meaning in almost every line, only to then have the line right after take me in a completely different direction again. Yet, while for so many poets this might be seen as a criticism, in this surrealist context it is very much meant as a compliment.

At the heart of Some Deer are representations of ritual, and how those rituals are broken. The titular ‘some deer’ show up in every poem, sometimes descending into hell and at other times speaking with each other about swimming pools. Humans appear only tangentially, often in ritual-breaking roles. ‘Some deer’ have deep realisations that they need each other, only for the outcome of this to be that they all get plastic surgery and end up looking like Andrei Tarkovsky. ‘Some deer’ get blessed by a priest, but only so that they can be ‘covered’ when they carry out various wrongdoings. Both the rituals and their outcomes are often darkly funny, but given a moment of thought could also be applied to some humans, too.

It's telling that the concept of ‘deer language’ evolves throughout the collection, first encompassing tail wagging and then, eventually, ending up at unnerving facial expressions. Shirley is adept at showing us both the frivolous nature of language and also how unsettling language can be. Some Deer challenges the reader to rethink their own relationships with language and nature, but also to laugh at the absurdity of those relationships.

Some Deer is published by Broken Sleep Books

Sean Wai Keung is a poetry, performance and food maker, living in Glasgow. He is Gutter’s poetry reviews editor