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 232, Volume 43 Number 2, November - December 2016.

‘The People on the Lawn’ & Other Poems Gerry McGrath
The People on the Lawn

The people on the lawn
Were invisible   weren’t on
First-name terms with the dead

Waved maniacally at passing cars
Said their goodbyes by postal ballot

Nodded at the thinning poet
Made their own darkness

Were uninterested in the light from Liébana
Fished in their youth

Won countless Petrarchan laurels
Woke themselves from piss-poor dreams

Suffered from chronic distraction
Never knew what they’d missed

Owned a blind telescope
Slipped into mythology
...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image