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 137, Volume 27 Number 3, January - February 2001.

Termites Greg Woods

for Allegra and Nicholas


Part One

1

Reading again after twenty years or more
The Soul of the White Ant, Eugène Marais' mix
            of scientific observation
      and strangely beguiling flights of madness,

I pause at the passages I underlined
to no apparent purpose - unless I knew
            my older self would be back, nothing
      to do, some dreary evening, leafing

through musty paperbacks most of whose best use
is to soundproof the alcoves between his house
            and next door, and would need directions
      to the bons mots most worth underlining -

and I find I was reading an author of
my own devising, no scientist but just
            a quirky kind of poet, happy
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image