Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 149, Volume 29 Number 3, January - February 2003.

On Listening to Glenn Gould play Bach's Goldberg Variations Robert Minhinnick

for my father

1

    Here it comes
    on its black sail
and surely nothing will be the same.
    Out of the silence
    in from the horizon
    and nothing will be the same.


2

    What can it be?
The dance of the viruses of course
under the theatre's glass.
Here's a waltz, a roundel, as they reproduce.
    Meanwhile, up in the paradiso
the scientists have started their applause.


3

Listen to the notes
    listen to the notes
as perfect as the pomegranates
and the plumage of the bee-eater
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image