Most Read... 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)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 91, Volume 19 Number 5, May - June 1993.

Four Poems Gareth Reeves

GADGETS


Write down in your own words what the poet means by …
'Means, my foot. It means what I bloody well wrote,'
barked father when they set him for O Level prac. crit.

A student erupts in a seminar
'Why do we end up arguing what a poem's about?'
Touché; to fill the silence …

'And your suggestion?'
A poem should not mean but be etcetera?
A machine made of words, a sort of divine gadgetry?

Ambition was out, trust to inspiration:
over a bottle one evening, beneath his outdoor awning
father set up a recitative:

'I shall go down for the odd limpid lyric.
Let's drink to that.'
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image