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 PN Review 188, Volume 35 Number 6, July - August 2009.

Four Poems Chris Wallace-Crabbe

Firestorm

The bushfires rant around our draggled town Life
Disintegrating some bloke in his house
And broiling others, where sedans broke down
Blindly. All blackened, from wombat to mouse.

That moment screamed in, rumoured to be like
Four Lockheeds or Rolls Royces in your head.
If you still have a head, now.
Squats on the ash: one charger for the dead?

Nature must lack the chivalry we could sniff
As brotherly tribute: something has turned out worse
With Plato’s cave become a blazing cliff;

Pain is the knot-hole in our universe
And yet the black calligraphy of trees
Can make this long view elegantly Chinese.


Where Are They and Why?
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image