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 249, Volume 46 Number 1, September - October 2019.

Five Poems Tara Bergin
Two Roses

I see great progress in your last letter but at the same time there is a sad note which we do not like. – James Joyce to his daughter Lucia, 1934

Please father-mother remember your splendid blooms
The Zephrine Drouhn beside the cottage door
The Generous Gardener round the arbour
I would like that – those –
They’re what I’m looking for.

The farmers here are not my friends.
Everyone else is ill.
He and I alone can’t help each other.
A drowning man clinging to a permeable vessel.
I know what you’re thinking: which part am I playing?

I’m playing the drowning man.

Please father-mother amongst all this I have such conversations:
‘Another biscuit? Why yes thank you I think I will!’
So my clothes tighten.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image