John Delaney
©John Delaney
Carpets
Moroccan magic, woven in the rug,
elicits from the cat a kind of whimsy.
He throws himself down and rolls around
ecstatically, stretching through a slew of poses.
Called “Sand Dunes,” waves of vibrant colors weave
through the runner. Their patterns ripple
like winds moving dunes across the Sahara,
grain by grain, sand powdered in the sun.
I imagine the weaver in her village home,
during the many months she worked on this,
was imagining, too, rolling in dunes
as a youth again, turning each second over.
From loom to room, the mind rides a magic carpet.
*Every rug has a story. Bought in Marrakesh, this contemporary Berber rug is made from wool and vegetable dyes. It comes from a village in the “high” region of the Atlas Mountains.
John Delaney’s publications include Waypoints (2017), a collection of place poems, Twenty Questions (2019), a chapbook, Delicate Arch (2022), poems and photographs of national parks and monuments, and Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of his son Andrew’s photographs and his poems. He lives in Port Townsend, WA.
John Delaney’s publications include Waypoints (2017), a collection of place poems, Twenty Questions (2019), a chapbook, Delicate Arch (2022), poems and photographs of national parks and monuments, and Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of his son Andrew’s photographs and his poems. He lives in Port Townsend, WA.