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 124, Volume 25 Number 2, November - December 1998.

Three Poems Mark Ford

Contingency Plans

On balance it wasn't so much the cash
I was owed, as the attacks on my character; I
Prayed for deliverance and revenge. November
Lingered on gloomily: colds and fevers swept
The population, reduced swathes to troubled brooding
And red, streaming eyes; in a quandary I seized
My innate Englishness, and practised
Wrapping it around me like an old army coat.

Two strikes, it was decreed, and you were out: appeals
For clemency were received with merry scorn.
As the gridlock eased I changed the subject,
Knowing my father, knowing the trees and the turnings and the signs
Along the route, and remembering his aversion to all
Blockages; I felt the engine growl, then
Shudder and forget itself. 'I'm a Rhinestone
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image