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 James Keery

Necessary Laziness
Lo Catoun, which that was so wys a man,
Seyde he nat thus, 'Ne do no fors of dremes?'

I have dreamed lately serene-blue unsolipsistic dreams,
Slumbering off the passive exhausting delirium of flu.
'A mere fever of thyself,' Keats would call me,
But my own life seems a bit less real than other people's
Just at the moment; I am one
Of those to whom the impressions of the world
Are beautiful and will not let them rest: -
A vision of the progress of an essay
Which I have never waking contemplated
But on which Susan
Is presently intent
Blended into walking down Culcheth Hall Drive
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image