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 136, Volume 27 Number 2, November - December 2000.

The Ziggurat Robert Minhinnick

        At Babel
We stand at the crater's edge
And see not one brick remains upon another.
    But there in the distance
    is Saddam's palace
    white as an egret perched on the hill,
As below us the river,
      vague,
            circumlocutory,
Heaves itself towards Basra.

      Following us
Are men who search for the worst things in the world.
          They look in tombs, in children's desks,
          under a jackass's tail.
Why not tell them, Nazaar,
That the formula they crave
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image