Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Tim Parksin conversation with Natalia Ginzburg
(PN Review 49)
Next Issue James K. Baxter, Uncollected Poems Rod Mengham, Last Exit for the Revolution Stav Poleg, The Citadel of the Mind Jena Schmitt, Resting Places: The Writing-Life F Friederike Mayrocker Wayne Hill, Poems
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
PN Review 275
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 181, Volume 34 Number 5, May - June 2008.

Five Poems Gabriel Levin

Arion

When the dolphin swept you up
from under, finning shoreward,
it understood, as in: to bear up, or seize

as in: 'He was lifted, and a cloud
took him out of their sight.'
At times a wind whisks the sea

into a froth and leaves us longing
for some all-encompassing fisheye
or stealthy zoom to steady our gaze -

but surely the brightest notions
are slow to dawn on any face
when the journey has come to this.

Pulled under by the deadweight
of your finery, you gagged on
a mouthful of song as unlooked for
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image