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 210, Volume 39 Number 4, March - April 2013.

Millport Observations John Wedgwood Clarke
A shag leaps through the sea's pupil
like the sea,

and the eye dilates,
all eyes, waiting for word.

*

Observe the paraphernalia of objectivity:
a row of magnifying glasses - heavy
vision flowers clamped to stands.

*

Out at Farlans Point, a history
of plastics obscures the pebbles.

I calculate the position of the missing Ark
using a bow-fronted house
and photograph of picnic with parasol.

*

The Clyde's in wooden boxes
cast-iron tanks and fridges
in a building like a cross
between a morgue, a garage and dental surgery
with a sweet library attached
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image