Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Tim Parksin conversation with Natalia Ginzburg
(PN Review 49)
Next Issue Hal Coase 'Ochre Pitch' Gregory Woods 'On Queerness' Kirsty Gunn 'On Risk! Carl Phillips' Galina Rymbu 'What I Haven't Written' translated by Sasha Dugdale Gabriel Josipovici 'No More Stories' Valerie Duff-Strautmann 'Anne Carson's Wrong Norma'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
PN Review 276
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from Poetry Nation 6 Number 6, 1976.

Conjurors Julian Orde Abercrombie

This crusty July, blackfly
        And other small, moist flies -
               Whiskers so thin
               They are not felt on skin -
Liking a dry July
        Interrupted the performance
        Of the opening of some flowers.

Nasturtiums' circus balance
        Of little heads and great wheels
               Went heeling sideways
               Under the puny flies'
Procession of slow advance -
        Who could be changed to grease
        By a thumb flicked over a leaf.
        
And as a leaf I picked
        I saw my fingers smeared with the dead
               And I hated this meek
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image