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 Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 71, Volume 16 Number 3, January - February 1990.

Three Poems Roger Finch

Friendship Is an Ancient Clay Tablet

                                                                                                                    
I spread my writings in the sun.

'Bird tracks', your people say,
flattening faces to the glass,
but philologists, wise
to things before their years,
read sa... kús.n, my word for 'love',
literally: 'to rest the heart'.

Death leaves hoofprints in the damp.
Not always death,
but always forgetfulness,
these marks cross out
names from my list of friends.

The scholars put here
suspension points:
No great loss '...' and '...'
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image