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.

Five Poems Ian McMillan

The Grimness: BBC Radio 4, Tuesday, 8.30pm
We don't talk much
but when we talk
we talk about the Grimness.

Almost a cliché
in this muck.
Ah, the Grimness.
I remember it well.

    And now on Radio 4
    the poet Ian McMillan
    presents a feature
    on the Grimness of 1993
    and what it did.

    He talks to a number of people
    who survived it
    and some who
    didn't.

    Such a big microphone

It just sort of sat there
on the settee.
Occasionally it looked at
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image