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)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
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 171, Volume 33 Number 1, September - October 2006.

The Face on Mars Bill Coyle

 a sermon

 Friends, it is good to see you here today,
 good to have had this time with you to pray.
 Please, please. Be seated. What I have to say,

 though new to everybody here, will not,
 I think, shock you, for everything I've taught,
 the whole evolving system of my thought,

 has led me (it is clear in retrospect)
 to this: a truth the whole world will reject –
 except for you, my dear ones, my elect.

 You will recall, from past sermons I've given
 on different members of the host of heaven,
 that Mars is the most crucial – more so even

 than Jupiter. I wonder have you read
 any of what has recently been said
 about Mars having been inhabited?

 Some of these people are lunatics, I know.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image