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Seeing Stars
Seeing Stars by Simon Armitage - the Poet Laureate - is a striking and original collection. .
Simon Armitage's new collection is by turns a voice and a a hyper-vivid array of dramatic monologues, allegories, parables and tall tales. Here comes Snoobie and Carla, Lippincott, Wittmann, Yoshioka, Bambuck, Dr Amsterdam, Preminger. The man whose wife drapes a border-curtain across the middle of the marital home; the English astronaut with a terrestrial outlook on life; an orgiastic cast of unreconstructed pie-worshipers at a Northern sculpture farm; the soap-opera supremacists at their zoo-wedding; the driver who picks up hitchhikers as he hurtles towards a head-on collision with Thatcherism; a Christian cheese-shop proprietor in the wrong part of town; the black bear with a dark secret, the woman who curates giant snowballs in the chest freezer. Celebrities and nobodies, all come to the ball.
The storyteller who steps in and out of this human tapestry changes, trickster-style, from poem to poem, but retains some identifying the melancholy of the less deceived, crossed with an undercover idealism. And he shares with many of his characters a star-gazing capacity for belief, or for being 'genuine in his disbelief'.
Language is on the loose in these poems, which cut and run across the parterre of poetic decorum with their cartoon-strip energies and air of misrule. Armitage creates world after world, peculiar yet always particular, where the only certainty is the unexpected.
88 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2010
24 people are currently reading
230 people want to read
About the author
Simon Armitage
143 books369 followersSimon Armitage, whose The Shout was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, has published ten volumes of poetry and has received numerous honors for his work. He was appointed UK Poet Laureate in 2019
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
Armitage's poetry collections include Book of Matches (1993) and The Dead Sea Poems (1995). He has written two novels, Little Green Man (2001) and The White Stuff (2004), as well as All Points North (1998), a collection of essays on the north of England. He has produced a dramatised version of Homer's Odyssey and a collection of poetry entitled Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid (which was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize), both of which were published in July 2006. Many of Armitage's poems appear in the AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance) GCSE syllabus for English Literature in the United Kingdom. These include "Homecoming", "November", "Kid", "Hitcher", and a selection of poems from Book of Matches, most notably of these "Mother any distance...". His writing is characterised by a dry Yorkshire wit combined with "an accessible, realist style and critical seriousness."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews
August 14, 2021
When you ask me what time it is,
it's purple. And when
the alarm goes off in a morning it's a
sort of metallic, minty
green...
There must always be a small
corner of rapture,
otherwise what's the point? And all
the while I'm tapping
my feet to the colours, going at it
with brushes or blades
until the world looks for all the
world like it sounds.
it's purple. And when
the alarm goes off in a morning it's a
sort of metallic, minty
green...
There must always be a small
corner of rapture,
otherwise what's the point? And all
the while I'm tapping
my feet to the colours, going at it
with brushes or blades
until the world looks for all the
world like it sounds.
November 27, 2020
The English Astronaut
He splashed down in rough seas off Spurn Point.
I watched through a coin-op telescope jammed
with a lollipop stick as a trawler fished him out
of the waves and ferried him back to Mission
Control on a trading estate near the Humber Bridge.
He spoke with a mild voice: yes, it was good to be
home; he'd missed his wife, the kids, couldn't wait
for a shave and a hot bath. 'Are there any more
questions?' No, there were not.
I followed him in his Honda Accord to a Little
Chef on the A1, took the table opposite, watched
him order the all-day breakfast and a pot of tea.
'You need to go outside to do that,' said the
waitress when he lit a cigarette. He read the paper,
started the crossword, poked at the black pudding
with his fork. Then he stared through the window
for long unbroken minutes at a time, but only at the
busy road, never the sky. And his face was not the
moon. And his hands were not the hands of a man
who had held between finger and thumb the blue
planet, and lifted it up to his watchmaker's eye.
August 30, 2021
A wonderfully surreal book – more Magritte than Dali, as the scenes have an anchor in the every-day (except “Knowing What We Know” which starts with an elf). Then, they veer Monty Python-like into the absurd. Each vignette is written in lyrical prose.
The author invents alternative (and mostly unbelievable) histories for famous people, such as Denis Bergkamp, James Cameron, Ringo Star … For example:
In other chapters he is a pharmacist, astronaut, a tattooist, a barber … And finally, he is Simon Armitage in disguise on a ‘Simon Armitage’ tour of his home town, where his own history is reinvented. Sometimes, his persona is unknown (but no less absurd in its actions)
There were hundreds of little passages, whose imagery leaves you reeling such as:
My absolute favourite chapter was the synaesthetic, stream-of-conciousness “The Overtones” – sheer poetry in prose clothing.
Highly recommended.
The author invents alternative (and mostly unbelievable) histories for famous people, such as Denis Bergkamp, James Cameron, Ringo Star … For example:
“I hadn’t meant to go grave robbing with Richard Dawkins but he can be very persuasive”.
In other chapters he is a pharmacist, astronaut, a tattooist, a barber … And finally, he is Simon Armitage in disguise on a ‘Simon Armitage’ tour of his home town, where his own history is reinvented. Sometimes, his persona is unknown (but no less absurd in its actions)
“At the annual Conference of Advanced Criminal Psychology, Dr Amsterdam and myself skipped the afternoon seminar on Offending Behaviours Within Gated Communities and went into town to go nicking stuff”
There were hundreds of little passages, whose imagery leaves you reeling such as:
“a few moments later their knees touched under the wooden table. For him it was like a parachute opening. For her it was like something involving an artichoke”
My absolute favourite chapter was the synaesthetic, stream-of-conciousness “The Overtones” – sheer poetry in prose clothing.
Highly recommended.
October 1, 2017
3.5 stars. I enjoyed this quirky and intriguing collection of short narrative poems though for some reason, I felt distracted after reading 40% of the book and struggled to stay focused. I nevertheless managed to finish reading this great poetry collection. Glad I did because Armitage demonstrated his skills in poetry and storytelling.
May 31, 2011
Seeing Stars is a book of what I would call prose-poetry. I've got an odd relationship with Armitage's poetry: I didn't like it, then I found a couple of his poems that I liked, and then I read more and more...
I have a similar sort of relationship with this collection. Prose-poetry is my thing, as a writer, so I was very interested to see what his work was like. Some of them fascinated, and there were some amazing lines, and some things that made me smile -- and the story about the couple who hang a curtain across the room will stick with me, I think -- but for the most part, I wasn't too impressed. Microfiction/prose-poetry is a very tricky art, which is the problem.
I have a similar sort of relationship with this collection. Prose-poetry is my thing, as a writer, so I was very interested to see what his work was like. Some of them fascinated, and there were some amazing lines, and some things that made me smile -- and the story about the couple who hang a curtain across the room will stick with me, I think -- but for the most part, I wasn't too impressed. Microfiction/prose-poetry is a very tricky art, which is the problem.
May 17, 2012
Poems? No. Microtales, quirky entertaining unexpected amusing bizarre ones, beautifully written. I will definitely be back.
September 21, 2016
I have loved Simon Armitage's poetry ever since reading his collection Zoom, and I read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in wonder at the ease with which he was able to retain the percussive alliteration and stress pattern throughout his translation. But Seeing Stars was a revelation: sure, the humor and eccentric takes on everyday events are still there, but a book of prose poems was not what I expected. Some are quirky in the extreme, many contain fabulous lines and ideas. If you find this book, just read the first poem, The Christening, for a taste—it starts "I am a sperm whale..." and ends with the glorious phrase, "Stuff comes blurting out."
'Nuff said.
'Nuff said.
May 23, 2012
It's been a while since I talked about poetry, so I've lost the vocabulary. But I liked these quite a bit:
-The Christening
-My Difference
-The Experience
-The Last Panda
-The Delegates
-The Overtones
Also, the poems seemed to be written in free verse so free it looked like prose. I may have missed something. I would point out, however, that this is not a criticism. 'Poetry has to be, you know, poetry' is not a tautology, but a viciously circular argument.
Now I gotta go familiarize myself with some more poetry a) written in the last 50 years b) by people I didn't study in school.
-The Christening
-My Difference
-The Experience
-The Last Panda
-The Delegates
-The Overtones
Also, the poems seemed to be written in free verse so free it looked like prose. I may have missed something. I would point out, however, that this is not a criticism. 'Poetry has to be, you know, poetry' is not a tautology, but a viciously circular argument.
Now I gotta go familiarize myself with some more poetry a) written in the last 50 years b) by people I didn't study in school.
May 18, 2011
There is a scene in Molière’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme in which Monsieur Jourdain, an uneducated but wealthy tradesman determined to improve his social standing, returns from a lesson with his philosophy master utterly entranced with a new discovery. He has, he pompously informs his wife, spent his life speaking prose! Prose! His more grounded wife counters that the only thing she has heard him speak recently is “total rubbish” but he departs more self-satisfied than ever. It is a hilarious scene in which Molière ruthlessly mocks Jordaine’s pretentious predilection for fancy notions over substance.
I start this review with this anecdote because one of the responses I hear most often in relation to Seeing Stars, is that it “isn’t really poetry, is it.” Such nonsense! As if form were more important than content! As if Jourdaine could become a gentleman simply by knowing the form in which he speaks. Whether Seeing Stars is conveyed in a form that more closely resembles poetry or prose is largely irrelevant. What matters is whether it has an effect on the individual reading it, and Seeing Stars is, for me, a collection of rather wonderful and moving vignettes that its author, or rather one of his collage of narrators, handily refers to as ‘story-poems’. These story-poems combine narrative drive and plot twists with awareness of language, pacing, and the impact of an odd transgression mid-line. In this hybrid form, Armitage excels.
There is a performance quality to the work. Armitage debuted many of these pieces at readings for a couple of years before publishing Seeing Stars and that gently lulling Yorkshire accent is apparent even when reading on the page. If there is a focus, it is on the substantial over the stylish, the meaningful over the meaningless. Armitage has a sneer for those “critics, sponsors, trustees, rich benefactors and famous names”, for whom art is canapés, champagne and glamorous receptions. Seeing Stars is their antithesis: an intimate and memorable chorus that suggests that often the most meaningful things in life are the least dramatic.
The title itself, and the works contained, conjure connotations of awe-struck wonder at the majesty of life, of punch-drunk shock at things gone wrong, of the flat disappointment that comes with encountering a celebrity who turns out to be just like everyone else, who cannot transform everyday monotony into something spectacular.
Seeing Stars is gritty, surreal, tender, and often hilarious. In ‘Last Words’ a woman who has been mortally wounded by a spider makes a last phone call and finds herself conversing with a similarly dying man stranded at sea. In ‘The Christening’ a sperm whale sites ‘finders keepers’ as justification for the British Crown continuing to own the Elgin Marbles and in ‘Seeing Stars’ an injudicious remark by a pharmacist to his customer results in a nasty altercation that leaves him reeling. One of the more poignant passages comes in ‘The English Astronaut’ when the narrator follows an astronaut to a Little Chef on the A1 and watches him stare out of the window at the busy road, never at the sky.
“…And his face was not the
moon. And his hands were not the hands of a man
who had held between finger and thumb the blue
planet, and lifted it up to his watchmaker’s eye.”
In many ways, Seeing Stars most closely reminds me of a collection of Murakami short stories, where the fantastical and the mundane exist together, overlapping and interpreting each other and emotional states are elucidated through grandiose experiences. However, where Seeing Stars differs is in the liberal use of satire and farce. These reverential experiences are never allowed to become too heartfelt before Armitage’s wicked, pen cuts them down a peg or two. There are many laugh-out-loud lines, and some exemplary first lines:
“I hadn’t meant to go grave robbing with Richard Dawkins
but he can be very persuasive.”
‘The Experience’
“I fear for the long-term commercial viability of the new
Christian cheese shop in our neighbourhood.”
‘Cheeses of Nazareth’
How could you not wish to read on after these? Armitage casts an absurd eye over various aspects of life that might otherwise become too heartfelt. In ‘The Delegates’, he lambastes consumerist waste, in ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ he turns the cult of celebrity on himself, recalling Googling his own name and imagining participating in the Simon Armitage Trail, a guided-tour of his life where the turnout is ‘woundingly low’. Family interactions, Thatcherism and the perception of Yorkshire in the wider world all intwine.
This is an entertainment rich, content conscious collection that works on many levels and provides a satisfying reading experience. In substance it is full of ideas and humour and wry glances into the sort of poignant, absurd, contradictory lives we live and have always lived.
I start this review with this anecdote because one of the responses I hear most often in relation to Seeing Stars, is that it “isn’t really poetry, is it.” Such nonsense! As if form were more important than content! As if Jourdaine could become a gentleman simply by knowing the form in which he speaks. Whether Seeing Stars is conveyed in a form that more closely resembles poetry or prose is largely irrelevant. What matters is whether it has an effect on the individual reading it, and Seeing Stars is, for me, a collection of rather wonderful and moving vignettes that its author, or rather one of his collage of narrators, handily refers to as ‘story-poems’. These story-poems combine narrative drive and plot twists with awareness of language, pacing, and the impact of an odd transgression mid-line. In this hybrid form, Armitage excels.
There is a performance quality to the work. Armitage debuted many of these pieces at readings for a couple of years before publishing Seeing Stars and that gently lulling Yorkshire accent is apparent even when reading on the page. If there is a focus, it is on the substantial over the stylish, the meaningful over the meaningless. Armitage has a sneer for those “critics, sponsors, trustees, rich benefactors and famous names”, for whom art is canapés, champagne and glamorous receptions. Seeing Stars is their antithesis: an intimate and memorable chorus that suggests that often the most meaningful things in life are the least dramatic.
The title itself, and the works contained, conjure connotations of awe-struck wonder at the majesty of life, of punch-drunk shock at things gone wrong, of the flat disappointment that comes with encountering a celebrity who turns out to be just like everyone else, who cannot transform everyday monotony into something spectacular.
Seeing Stars is gritty, surreal, tender, and often hilarious. In ‘Last Words’ a woman who has been mortally wounded by a spider makes a last phone call and finds herself conversing with a similarly dying man stranded at sea. In ‘The Christening’ a sperm whale sites ‘finders keepers’ as justification for the British Crown continuing to own the Elgin Marbles and in ‘Seeing Stars’ an injudicious remark by a pharmacist to his customer results in a nasty altercation that leaves him reeling. One of the more poignant passages comes in ‘The English Astronaut’ when the narrator follows an astronaut to a Little Chef on the A1 and watches him stare out of the window at the busy road, never at the sky.
“…And his face was not the
moon. And his hands were not the hands of a man
who had held between finger and thumb the blue
planet, and lifted it up to his watchmaker’s eye.”
In many ways, Seeing Stars most closely reminds me of a collection of Murakami short stories, where the fantastical and the mundane exist together, overlapping and interpreting each other and emotional states are elucidated through grandiose experiences. However, where Seeing Stars differs is in the liberal use of satire and farce. These reverential experiences are never allowed to become too heartfelt before Armitage’s wicked, pen cuts them down a peg or two. There are many laugh-out-loud lines, and some exemplary first lines:
“I hadn’t meant to go grave robbing with Richard Dawkins
but he can be very persuasive.”
‘The Experience’
“I fear for the long-term commercial viability of the new
Christian cheese shop in our neighbourhood.”
‘Cheeses of Nazareth’
How could you not wish to read on after these? Armitage casts an absurd eye over various aspects of life that might otherwise become too heartfelt. In ‘The Delegates’, he lambastes consumerist waste, in ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ he turns the cult of celebrity on himself, recalling Googling his own name and imagining participating in the Simon Armitage Trail, a guided-tour of his life where the turnout is ‘woundingly low’. Family interactions, Thatcherism and the perception of Yorkshire in the wider world all intwine.
This is an entertainment rich, content conscious collection that works on many levels and provides a satisfying reading experience. In substance it is full of ideas and humour and wry glances into the sort of poignant, absurd, contradictory lives we live and have always lived.
August 2, 2024
Read to James, 5*
July 23, 2017
These sly and surreal microstories and prose poems range from the hilarious to the sinister. It's difficult to give a sense of the range of monologues and parabolic tales and shaggy dog stories that populate this collection of 39 stories.
But, in recommendation of the whole, allow me to nominate one that took my breath away. "I'll Be There to Love and Comfort You", no more than a page-and-a-half in length, opens with the understated wit of:
But, in recommendation of the whole, allow me to nominate one that took my breath away. "I'll Be There to Love and Comfort You", no more than a page-and-a-half in length, opens with the understated wit of:
The couple next door were testing the structural fabric of the house with their difference of opinion."and, via the barest evocation of a hidden tragedy in the narrator's life and the inexplicable irruption of some other reality, ends with uncanny and poetic dread and hope intermingled:
Then slowly but slowly I opened my fist to the unknown. And out of the void, slowly but slowly it came: the pulsing starfish of a child's hand, swimming and swimming and coming to settle on my upturned palm.Shivers!
September 3, 2010
The critics were preaching to the converted (if not the evangelical) when they recommended this book to me; however, I have to say it fulfills all of my expectations of Simon Armitage and then some.
It's a collection of prose-poems, allegories, parables and (very) short stories. The narrative always carries his slightly anti-earnest tone, but like all great comedy Armitage always keeps a little pathos waiting in the wings.
I'd recommend this on the basis of his stunning smilies alone. For example: "Back in the house they argued like flamethrowers" (from '15:30 by the Elephant House')
Need I say more?
It's a collection of prose-poems, allegories, parables and (very) short stories. The narrative always carries his slightly anti-earnest tone, but like all great comedy Armitage always keeps a little pathos waiting in the wings.
I'd recommend this on the basis of his stunning smilies alone. For example: "Back in the house they argued like flamethrowers" (from '15:30 by the Elephant House')
Need I say more?
June 5, 2013
Good book with some nice poetry and funny stories.
Yorkshire's second man of poetry shows expert use of joining together apparently unrelated topics to create unique stories, and also some nice extended phrases; which show the kind of skill that's made him a star poet.
Nice phrases like : 'The girl looked up at Ricky with a face like a silver coin at the bottom of a deep well caught by the momentary glimmer of a footman's lantern.'
In the above phrase I particularly liked the addition of 'the bottom of a deep well' to the silver coin; and 'momentary glimmer' to the footman's lantern: deepening their imagery and impact.
Yorkshire's second man of poetry shows expert use of joining together apparently unrelated topics to create unique stories, and also some nice extended phrases; which show the kind of skill that's made him a star poet.
Nice phrases like : 'The girl looked up at Ricky with a face like a silver coin at the bottom of a deep well caught by the momentary glimmer of a footman's lantern.'
In the above phrase I particularly liked the addition of 'the bottom of a deep well' to the silver coin; and 'momentary glimmer' to the footman's lantern: deepening their imagery and impact.
February 23, 2012
Simon Armitage writes in a beautiful, quirky, delicious style of prose-poetry that is refreshingly unique and original. His writing calls to mind the lilting poetry of Paul Muldoon, as well as the magic and mystery of Neil Gaiman and Jasper Fforde. This was a beautiful collection, my first Armitage book, and without a doubt, NOT my last :) I fully intend to read more of his works. Armitage is a brilliant poet.
August 1, 2017
Quirky, slightly morose tellings of incidents in the style of James Tate, but a British version. These prose poems take you on bite sized journeys. However, I still prefer Tate's oddball sense of humor to Armitage. Bringing it all back home is the standout poem for me and I can see why he sequenced it second to last. Perhaps it is because the ironical distance in that one also comes with some revelation of himself as he imagines a poetic tour of his hometown?
July 16, 2012
Like a box of tiny stories; this has just became one of my favourite books of poetry. Not all of them make sense to me, but I find that after discussing these with others I end up understanding a lot more. Conversational, funny, silly, dry, and heart-rendingly tragic, often all in the same poem. "Stuff comes blurting out."
December 27, 2014
Are these Poems? Very short stories? However you might describe this collection of punchy but concise vignettes, I found them very enjoyable, sad, funny, sly and a bit of a peek into the British psyche. You get a story form I've not seen done anywhere else (perhaps John Hegley? Less successfully.) I enjoyed every single one and wanted more the moment I finished.
May 26, 2015
My only experience with Armitage previously had been at school (GCSE anthology anyone?). 15 years or so later and I stumble across shooting stars and I was blown away. A dazzling collection of allegorical stories and absurdities that piece together to form a sometimes scathing commentary on the individual. Wonderful stuff.
October 3, 2012
An incredibly funny and clever collection of poems from Armitage. Highlights include: 'Hop in, Dennis' - an account of giving Dennis Bergkamp a lift from Calais to Luxembourg; 'The Practical Way to Heaven'; and 'Cheeses of Nazareth' about a Christian Cheese shop.
July 4, 2013
I was misled that this is poetry. Shame. My perception was therefore tainted.
However, I regained my senses, discerned that I was reading phenomenal short tales, imaginatively conceived and deftly delivered in an intellectual manner, and all was well with the world!
Read it... NOW!
However, I regained my senses, discerned that I was reading phenomenal short tales, imaginatively conceived and deftly delivered in an intellectual manner, and all was well with the world!
Read it... NOW!
June 5, 2014
Poetic short tales, or whatever you wish to call this I loved this book, and couldn't stop reading to see where on earth the next one was going to go, with loads of memorable characters
April 11, 2011
Wacky stuff. Some of the short stories/poems really stick in your mind. It is something about the incongruity or the sting in the tale( crap joke) Others just don't.
August 25, 2011
Something a little different from Armitage: a collection of prose poems. But vintage Armitage, too, as songs of the working class north. Will be returning to this again very soon.
June 16, 2013
Wonderful! Love them all, especially "Bringing It All Back Home". That's Marsden for you!
February 23, 2014
So now I know what 'prose-poetry' is. It's just stories.
January 13, 2016
Absurd, dreamlike poems that make bizarre sense and engender a sense of sorrow.
August 3, 2016
A strange, yet entertaining, book of free verse prose poems. Those adverse to poetry, and a strange sense of humor, might find this collection worth reading.
April 19, 2017
Or perhaps 4 for craft and 3 for the extent things stuck. All journeys round the minds of poets are curated but this felt more artful than most.
Read
October 17, 2021I feel strange giving Armitage a star rating, since I've met him through university and found him incredibly charismatic and knowledgable. He's full of talent and some of his early collections are absolutely brilliant, while his translation of Sir Gawain is one of my favourite long poems of all time (alongside Pushkin's Eugene Onegin). I have no doubt that as far as prose poems go, Armitage achieved what he was aiming for here. However, I have to say, I prefer his other collections that I've read (Zoom, Book of Matches, The Unaccompanied).
June 5, 2025
A collection of delightfully strange prose poems that made me laugh. My favourites were The Cuckoo and Seeing Stars.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 71 reviews