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 164, Volume 31 Number 6, July - August 2005.

Pluck Gwyneth Lewis

I Riddle of a Harp

We have the answer:
Catrin Finch's harp.
Now I'll riddle it backwards.

Cheese-cutter morphing
into fiddle-head fern.
Part shepherd's crook
turned to woman's hip.
Chromatic spaghetti.

It's an abacus and the beads
it counts are crotchets.
It's a see-through sail.
The harpist rides the melody's board,
weaving her way on symphonic gales
but she's always thrown off at the final chord.

It's a stand of trees,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image