Taboo Deformation
Science now hangs a radio transmitter on the bear’s neck
to trace his movements, but we may ask who is really lost.
– Paul Shepard
Unmentionable one, changing maiden, winter sleeper,
large brown one, listener, old man in the fur coat,
great one, old mother, honey eater, forest virgin,
golden king, four-legged human, uncle of the woods,
crooked tail, light foot, honey paws, elder brother,
the beast that walks like a man, dog of God,
short-tail, big-feet, sacred virgin, grandfather, the one
who prowls at night, honey pig, loner, owner of the earth,
god of the mountains, fur man, forest master,
licker, woolly one, wild one of the northern woods.
Throughout circumpolar prehistory
people considered the bear sacred, ineffable, taboo –
its real name was forbidden.
Bera, beron, bar, bjorn, bher, bruin, bear.
All of these just describe colour – ‘the brown one’ –
the bear’s names are attempts not to say its name.
The bear is predator and prey, east and west,
mother and father, traveller, carrier, shapeshifter,
a god who died for his people, garbage-eater,
grainfield destroyer, teacher and healer, weather forecaster,
the largest omnivore, underground and in the sky –
the one who turns the heavens.
Kelly Shepherd
Bestiary
Last night in the hills – really, last dusk, when
this pair of coyotes went after some fawns,
a family of deer stood transfixed – as though
bronzed, as if they were symbols –
before bounding off toward the predators.
The aged frame of the world: hunter, prey. Hide
and seek. Kiss, kill. Animal, human. Anima,
animus. All totalled, they’re samples of binary logic
this song dog opposes. Have I not told you?
This killer lives in my head. A mob. A confidence
man. I steal plants from TJ’s, to name a few strains
of crooked I am. Some days I pee standing up – backward,
ass to the toilet, eyes pinned on gargoyle shapes in the door –
a clown, a cur, an ogress anchored and wailing: a thing freely lost.
Diane Raptosh
IMAGE
Terese Tubman
Dance Then
Oil pastels and watercolour on paper
Fox is fire, blood and heart. We dance to the drum beat on the earth. Drawn in part with my fingers, invoking the vivid shapes of a shamanic journey. Part of a current group project of artists and writers, ‘Holy Animals and Sacred Plants’, led by artist Kate Walters.
Terese Tubman is an artist, writer and GP from Port Stephens, Australia. She draws and paints the coastal edges of Cornwall, her home and Brittany, that invite her to listen. She is learning to write and paint from shamanic journeys. A group project, ‘Holy Animals and Sacred Plants’ has exhibitions planned in 2026. @teresetubman
Dark Mountain: Issue 29
Our Spring 2026 anthology is a hardback collection that steps outside the human bubble and puts animals at its heart
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