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 166, Volume 32 Number 2, November - December 2005.

Four Poems Grevel Lindop

Hen Felin

There is a white house sunk in the long grass
and a spring rises, no one knows from where

and there is nothing, nothing and again nothing.
The nothings talk together in the house.

The beach breathes when the tide hisses along it,
each pebble bald as a moon; and the moon rises,

and the rocks melt and wrinkle the bright sea.
Part of you has been living here for years

among the nothings and the silences
which are not nothing and are never silent.

And stranded in the long grass and the weeds
a wooden boat, her timbers sprung by time

the white wood mildewed, SWALLOW on the bow:
a white moon drowning in a green sea.

The knitwork tapestry of furballed goosegrass,
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image