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 15, Volume 7 Number 1, September - October 1980.

The First Away Graham Fawcett

Caught basking, by a tread too near, the snare was
not being in the grass. Ventriloquist,
the slither of a belly faked the breeze
it got mistaken for, a trompe l'oreille

shown up by sheer length racing, and a weight
as grounded and continuous as a rope
pulling, distinctly, through the undergrowth.
One glimpse is proof: the skin that shines like fish
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image