Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
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 Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 35, Volume 10 Number 3, January - February 1984.

At the Pool J. P. Ward

We stood there on a winter day.
The rootless horn-wort always seen
In shallow moorland ponds was there,
This pond a spring or watering-hole
For Gower horses. Picked, this weed
Had dangling a tube of slime
Meniscus on the emerald green.
Immersed again it spread its full
Feathers about in loose relief
Back in wild, icy water. If

We looked at it, we stared at it
In fact just like a 'nature class'
Which we in some ways have become,
Living out here. Bogweed, star-wort,
A long-haired not a spongy moss
We'd never seen, its thrilling stems
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image