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 Poetry Nation 4 Number 4, 1975.

Impressions of Edinburgh Paul Mills

Mountains were travelling with us
Converging and falling away like swallows
A cloud caught the abrasion of the sun
Red-raw, fraying. The road steepened.
My hands are at the wheel, my left eye
In the inside mirror, widens.
Can it recognise itself this far?
So far, so wide, the moor will never close
There'll be no city over its wild domes
Ahead the sky arranges its reception:
What multiple interweavings
In those streaks, stilled there:
Those you will meet, those you will become.
Shale-brown, lead-grey houses
Lit windows in August, floods in gutters
Mountains suspended North in threads of rain.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image