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 79, Volume 17 Number 5, May - June 1991.

Out of Europe Peter Hughes
 
(I) MANHATTAN STONE

Or how they would dance in the churches of Harlem
north of Columbia where the heights roll down into
   shadow
and ALBANY points whiter into Saturday light

If I end here in the land of denial, a wind off the Hudson
blowing over the Palisades, the cargo thunder
air drying my eyeballs, final myopia, will carry me home

Nothing here is the way I conceived it: women driving
   alone
lift their knees, from gas to brake, sculling the clutch
and the gear shifts on the wheel like the bolt of a gun

I lost in Spain, along with a war and my hopes of peace
driving with one who held a cigaret like a shell
like a cartridge,the word snicks shut in third gear, going
   uptown
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image