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 Hal Coase 'Ochre Pitch' Gregory Woods 'On Queerness' Kirsty Gunn 'On Risk! Carl Phillips' Galina Rymbu 'What I Haven't Written' translated by Sasha Dugdale Gabriel Josipovici 'No More Stories' Valerie Duff-Strautmann 'Anne Carson's Wrong Norma'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
PN Review 275
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 85, Volume 18 Number 5, May - June 1992.

Three Poems P.J. Kavanagh

A GOTTLE O' GUINNESS

Should a man catch a glimpse of the feet of the
   shapes
That exist beyond eyeshot, he knows he must follow,
   and songs
Swirl in him, soundless, because he wearily knows,
Or is told, that his times mistrust brightnesses,
   choose
Deconstruction, and clamp his tongue in tongs.
But he moves in the draught of their movement -
   the feet
Grow into logic, with ankles and shins and kneecaps
And faces above - though he never dares to lift up
   his eyes.

Such a man cannot, an old-fashioned music hall vent.
With his dummy, choose only pronounceable phrases
Consonant with his times, or allow them to work its
   obedient
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image