Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 116, Volume 23 Number 6, July - August 1997.

Slip Conor O'Callaghan

and to know how to be Nobody, like Ulysses, perhaps one needs the sea
     Claudio Magris


A path that holds
a thousand barnacles
and no definite end,

that's slowed at in passing,
even stopped at with
an hour or so to kill.

One of a handful
of dispersed survivors
from the Napoleonic wars,

touched up with cement
and with numbers frayed
to flecks of yellow paint.

A jaunt after dinner
is drawn to the blade
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image