Poem of the Month
 

 Simon Armitage

 The Lives of the Poets 

They rise early, like just after lunchtime.

Their breath on the mirror confirms their existence.

They should rest a while, but today is crunch time

 

for a rhyme that stands between now and forever,

time to knuckle down to their monkey business.

They sharpen a quill and pause for a breather.

 

How well they remember those quarantined villagers,

nursing the plague and begging for aid

with pennies dropped into bowls of vinegar,

 

yet the suffering helps; when things get cosy a

sugary residue coats the tongue,

hence the grinding of peppercorns into Ambrosia.

 

Late afternoon, and for meaning or moral

they stand at the window and gaze towards yonder,

at the forked oak or a bird in the laurel,

 

but their compound eyes play tricks by the hundred:

in the clenched fist they notice the rosebud,

in the pretty rose they see Joe Bugner.

 

They have pinned their hopes on the incidental:

the plums in the fridge are there for the taking,

as is a snow crystal. They offer so little,

 

expect even less. A plaque on their houses

is ample reward for the years of fiddling,

for the ink stains on their big girls’ blouses,

 

for shuffling, scratching, occasionally traipsing

up to the post box, for walking behind us

and pulling faces. Mimicking. Aping. 
 

Commissioned by the Poetry Society to mark our Centenary

 

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Dec
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Dec
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Dec
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Poetry in the news

DECEMBER

Ted Hughes was a prophet of climate change (Times Online)

2 Who killed John Keats? (Times Online)

2 The rise of poetry in advertising (Guardian)

2 Poetry Society member Liz Berry wins tall-lighthouse poetry competition

1 Poetry Society member David Gilbert joint 3rd in Troubadour Poetry Prize

1 Why only Poets' Corner will do for Ted Hughes (Simon Armitage, Standard)

NOVEMBER

30 Why I never became a poet (Guardian)

29 Ruth Padel: "I rush into things... I'm full of self-doubt"
(Guardian)

27 Can literature face the storm of climate change?  (Independent)

25 Sexus Maximus! (Mail Online)

25 Costa nominations (Times Online)

24 Poetry increases brain activity (Guardian)

 

More Poetry in the News