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 152, Volume 29 Number 6, July - August 2003.

Four Poems John Gallas

The Man Who Went the Other Way Down the Golden Road to Samarkand

It must have been another life,
but I remember I met them oh
somewhere on the road between Qasr-E-Shirin and Chah-I-Surkh.
I trotted backwards with them for a while for company
and wondered at their purpose.

I dozed on the sofa.
My book slipped.
My soul wound out of my mouth
like a white shirt in a breeze


and wished me away.
I asked them:
`Such a big, bundled, bouncing, bell-banging bunch;
where, pray, have you come from?'

And they answered:
`From old Baghdad the Beautiful, Fat Sir:
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image