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)
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 223, Volume 41 Number 5, May - June 2015.

Two Poems Alex Houen
Ring Cycle

Before, during, and after Anselm Kiefer


When I say this high I guess it is a salute
        to blobs of meat or blushing organs
and the height assumes a kind of blue-
        pink water minus Virginia Woolf.
Or when I say this high it is a salute
        of pale smoke baring face up to clouds
where clouds make faces palest sheets.
        Or when I make this salute it really says
NOTHUNG and is a voice inside singing
        EIN SCHWERT VERHIEß MIR DER VATER!
so I wonder blushing if my fire’s collapsing
        back to water less Virginia Woolf.
Or when I make this salute suddenly
        there’s a white cot in a wooden attic
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image