Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(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 Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 100, Volume 21 Number 2, November - December 1994.

The Kuppneriad Frank Kuppner

The Kuppneriad
Mk1

1.
And if there was a time before this 'beginning',
that would have been this actual universe too.
For what other totality can there be to belong to?

2.
Another unwritten epic! They're my favourite kind.

3.
as, from the end of it
poured out into the opacity of the night sky
an endless sequence of galaxies; of complexities
to be disentangled, at length, into galaxies;
into vast strands of matter, which could possibly
develop into life, or whiplashing enormities,
or currents which fifty lives, one after the other,
would be insufficient to cross. So it went on for

4.
as I fell out of the window of heaven, I remarked
the wonderful light of evening. Or was it morning?
Whatever it was, it was such a wonderful light.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image