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 276
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 3, Volume 4 Number 3, April - June 1978.

Occasional Uncles Timothy Dekin

1.
So warm we opened up the house today.
The lilacs had come out. I named and took
Lupine and ferns, a blue flower with a white
Eye in its pit-Brunnera in the book.

We worked together. Face to face, we washed
The cabin windows, rubbing contrariwise.
Cutting through weather, grease, we made almost
Invisible the glass between our lives.

The woods grew quiet and the sun slowed down.
Silent and thoughtless, with nothing to resist,
We were healing, and didn't try to talk.
I saw, heavy with light upon my wrist,

Each hair swing slowly with my polishing.
Then drawn by forces I cannot describe,
Lifted from being over redwood plains,
Through burning glass, I entered your dark eyes.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image