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 219, Volume 41 Number 1, September - October 2014.

Two Prose Poems Paul Rossiter
A Tragicomedy in Five Acts, Presented to Great Applause

  1. Honey. Apples. Summer in an orchard. A treatise on gardens.

  2. A grey wolf is observed among the hollyhocks. The donning of a mask. Manifold complications and a misplaced key.

  3. Thunder. Catastrophe. Tempests and earthquakes. An old man jumps from a very high bridge.

  4. Multiplying disguises. Scenes of unbridled lust. The gaoler with a rubber nose. The beautiful animal is tormented in its golden cage. Seventeen rapes, five eviscerations, and the destruction of several large cities.

  5. Providential manipulations and rearrangements. Thoughts on fatherhood. Three unlikely marriages and a humble restitution. After a short pause for refreshments, the whole thing starts all over again.




Utopia, Arcadia

1

The 3:19 passes through a cutting and across a matchstick bridge above a glassy river. It’s running right on time. It continues through a level crossing and comes to a halt in a station equipped with bookstall, milk churns and a motionless porter.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image