PN Review - one of the great poetry magazines in the English language - has reached
its 200th number. Eyewear says hats off to them! In 1973 W.L. Webb noted their debut in the Guardian, in particular the magazine’s ‘elevated stroppiness
of tone and a sense of breaking new ground that I haven't come across for some
time'. They have survived a lot, including the Manchester bomb of 1996, and made marks along the way with, for example, PNR 13, Crisis for
Cranmer and King James which got them in trouble with the Commons. I found it a great resource for my PhD research on FT Prince, and other poets of the 1940s. While I don't always agree with the tone and tenor of all the critical judgements made in its pages, there is a serious, dignified and utterly committed approach to modern and contemporary poetry that remains unmatched elsewhere in the UK. The new milestone issue, PNR 200 is for July/August 2011. Like every PNR it includes an editorial, letters, news
and notes, reports, poems and translations, interviews, essays and reviews. It
introduces new poets and celebrates those already on their way. The complete
on-line archive is accessible at www.pnreview.co.uk. I can't wait to get my copy.
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.

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