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 148, Volume 29 Number 2, November - December 2002.

from Arnold's Wood Jeremy Hooker

'He was close to nature.
He inspired us.' Looking up
from a student's words,
I saw leaves on a birch-tree
dancing in the wind,
and at once, in that glance,
I knew.

The words startled me
and in the tree
shaking, swaying, dancing
I saw their truth.
It was the rhythm of joy
given and received,
which I knew in an instant,
and hope not to forget again.

            *

Do we abandon the dead
by leaving places where they died?

Ask the daffodils dancing
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image