Most Read... John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Joshua WeinerAn Exchange with Daniel Tiffany/Fall 2020
(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 Sinead Morrissey 'The Lightbox' Philip Terry 'What is Poetry' Ned Denny 'Nine Poems after Verlaine' Sasha Dugdale 'On learning that Russian mothers buy their soldier sons lucky belts inscribed with Psalm 90 to wear into battle' Rod Mengham 'Cold War Hot Air'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This poem is taken from PN Review 57, Volume 14 Number 1, September - October 1987.

A Cornish Saint Philip Gross

They can't be serious, those two-a-penny saints
  washed up like holy jetsam: no mere boats
for them, but millstones, coffins, kegs. So delicate
  Saint Ia had to float
in on a leaf. Their visitations stopped abruptly

as the trippers' now. St Ives is emptied like a till
  and counted. Stiff winds scrub the town.
Summer timetables tatter and flap; awnings rattle
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image