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 198, Volume 37 Number 4, February - March 2011.

Two San Francisco Poets David C. Ward
Weldon Kees' Car

was found by a cop on the beat
at 2am in a park near the Golden Gate,
the doors and windows open, fog tendrils
blowing - an easy metaphor picked up
by literary detectives trying to fathom
Kees' unexplained, shocking vanishing.
The law assumed suicide or 'death by misadventure',
empty car plus proximity to the suicide bridge
added up to a familiar story. Case closed. But no
body was ever found and years later a journalist
claimed to have seen Kees somewhere down
in Mexico - probably in the same town where JFK
hangs out with Marilyn and Elvis (slim again) plays
hillbilly guitar. The reporter said Kees ducked him
And disavowed all knowledge of the arts.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image