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 108, Volume 22 Number 4, March - April 1996.

Two Poems Barbara Guest


Neiges Fondantes
Seen on the whimpering screen the white ruff a tongue wags out numbered
by snow til death the sorghum tree Theodore Fontane he left a print
on the old regime.

Cord of wood outside the Mosque two by two and warmed the flakes elude
the vizier's guard we watch the blue dim scarlet touch the angel mouth a
freeze would do us a clasp my arm hear the chariots pass

Neiges fondantes 'melting snow' is this isle a sham bay view a leaf Lago
di Garda the flowery sun I thought of the giant ribbon tree festooned a little
masque we attend.

That day at Chichester in the melt a half-hour for the Cathedral medieval
chill he clad in lightest wool The Eve oj St Agnes inside his cap.

Willy nilly the stone barn lost its top a flotilla of snow mice
they're draining the stoat how dare they sleeveless warm go hosting
in a timberless cairn Hark!
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image