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 Stav Poleg's Banquet Stanley Moss In a concluding conversation, with Neilson MacKay John Koethe Poems Gwyneth Lewis shares excerpts from 'Nightshade Mother: a disentangling' John Redmond revisits 'Henneker's Ditch'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 187, Volume 35 Number 5, May - June 2009.

Three Poems Robert Nye
Bicycling, with Birds
What I remember when I’d think of you
Who once possessed the power to stop my heart
Is how one summer morning we rode out
Down leafy lanes on new red bicycles
Not so much following a pair of birds
As being led by them.
                                 Was it delight
That made those whitethroats dance upon the air?
They seemed to know where we would go before
We knew the way ourselves.
                                 They flickered there,
Darting about our handlebars, our heads,
A pair of common birds, but magical,
Leading us on, and singing as they flew.

We rang our bells for them, and for the joy
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image