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 85, Volume 18 Number 5, May - June 1992.

Five Poems Sophie Hannah

FOR EVERY BIRD WHO DREAMS THAT FLIGHT IS EASY

This wallpaper soaks up secrets. Each pink flower
throbs with a previous pain; each miniature bird
shelters a word beneath its lilac wing,
while the blue beak seeks a sorrow seed to pluck
from petals, which offer up without resistance
their heavy burdens.

Resistance, though? A strangled resolution
originated here: life must get harder
for every bird who dreams that flight is easy,
for every flower under the illusion
that spring will follow winter.

This wallpaper wraps the room in helpless beauty:
a thousand birds, a thousand roses stuck
in delicate isolation. They grow stronger
by reaching for each other in the darkness.
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image