Deer Diaries

Judith Stanton’s Deer Diaries celebrate fawns, does, bucks, birds, a renegade coyote, a special turtle and snail, and a glittering albino doe throughout the seasons. Luminous poems for nature lovers. One by one, day after day, these wild creatures showed up on Judith’s farm, inviting her to record their daily lives. Each event in every poem happened, really. Judith was riding her beloved horse Winston when they came across the fawn in the pasture. She was driving into town to buy groceries when the albino doe leaped across the road. The three-legged doe was the bravest deer she ever observed, and felt like her friend. Deer Diaries has been for Judith what writers call a gift book. From the moment she wrote “The Three-Legged Doe,” all the other poems fell into place. Deer she’d watched for decades consorted to reveal themselves at every hour of the day and night, throughout the seasons of the year. For some of the lightest quietest poems, they just showed up. The tragedies, too, stock and staple of lives lived wild. She was so privileged to have the time, place, and freedom to chronical the daily lives of the wildlife on her farm—their quirks, humor, resilience, courage. Friends who’ve read Deer Diaries say without fail that now when they drive our county roads, with deer liable to dart out at any moment, they drive more carefully. May you drive more carefully on your roads too. Judith published five historical romance novels and a contemporary equestrian suspense before discovering a new passion in writing about the natural world on her own farm. She also edited The Letters of Charlotte Smith, and is nominated for a Distinguished Alumna award at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.