The Paddock Review

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A Poem by John Delaney

Volubilis

 

 

You pass through the gate as through a time warp

of centuries into a Roman world

of streets and homes and businesses.

There is much that remains in this rubble

still overlooking a fine fertile valley.

 

You imagine the lives of the people,

taking their families to the public baths

fed by an aqueduct from the mountains.

Squeezing olives at the coop, inviting

friends over to marvel at the new mosaic floor.

 

They imagined things, too. Elephants and tigers,

gods and goddesses are depicted there.

The towering columns support stork nests now.

A colonnaded street reminds you of processions

with banners flying, honoring each passing year.

 

Anyway, you could have been happy here.

 

 

One of Morocco’s best-preserved Roman ruins located near Meknes above a fertile plain surrounded by wheat fields. Founded in the 3rd century B.C, Volubilis, at its peak in the 2nd century A.D., is thought to have had 20,000 residents. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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This poem first appeared in Last Leaves, and can be found in the book Morocco by John Delaney (Finishing Line Press) at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/morocco-by-john-delaney/


John Delaney retired after 35 years in the Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections of Princeton University Library, where he was head of manuscripts processing and then, for his last 15 years, curator of historic maps. He has written a number of works on cartography, including Strait Through: Magellan to Cook and the Pacific; First X, Then Y, Now Z: An Introduction to Landmark Thematic Maps; and Nova Caesarea: A Cartographic Record of the Garden State, 1666-1888. These have extensive website versions. He has written poems for most of his life, and, in the 1970s, he attended the Writing Program of Syracuse University, where his mentors were poets W. D. Snodgrass and Philip Booth. No doubt, in subtle ways, they have bookended his approach to poems. His 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,Galápagos (2023), a collaborative chapbook of his son Andrew’s photographs and his poems, Nile (2024), a chapbook of poems and photographs about Egypt, Filing Order: Sonnets (2025), and CATechisms (2025), poems and photographs about his senior cat, Ramen. He lives in Port Townsend, WA.