Paper Aeroplane: Selected Poems 1989–2014

by Simon Armitage

When Simon Armitage burst on to the poetry scene in 1989 with his spectacular debut Zoom!, readers were introduced to an exceptional new talent who would reshape the landscape of contemporary poetry in the years to come. Now, twenty-five years on, Simon Armitage's reputation as one of the nation's most original, most respected and best-loved poets seems secure. Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014 is the author's own selection from across a quarter-century of work, from his debut to the latest, uncollected work. Drawing upon all of his award-winning poetry collections, including Kid, Book of Matches, The Universal Home Doctor and Seeing Stars, this generous selection provides an essential gathering of this most thrilling of poets, and is key reading for students and general readers alike.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, British Literature, School

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 2, 2014

About the author

Simon 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."

Reviews

[Atri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always we are moving away.
In the tunnel we test the echo of
the engine and check our haircuts in the
rain-spattered quarter-light. Someday, something

will give. When the sun comes up tomorrow
it will dawn on us. But for now we shine
like the stars we understand...

***

Outside we watch the evening, failing again, and we let it happen. We can say nothing.

Sometimes the sun spangles and we feel alive. One thing we have to get, John, out of this life.

***

We studied the view as if we owned it;
noted each change, and condoned it.
...
For what we have, or had, we are grateful.
To say otherwise
would be bitterness
and we know better than to surrender.

***

We idle now on waiting lists, and dream
of runways, level crossings, traffic queues;
waiting to come clean,
to break the news

of how we live, of what we have seen,
of how it leaves us, and what that proves.
A light goes green
but nobody moves.

***

The sun will have its day,
its weeks, months,
years.

Fine.
But just for once, for me,
dig deep, think twice, be otherwise, be
someone else this time.
Mine.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I see a Selected Poems by Heaney, Hughes or Harrison I feel they've always been there. When I see this, the second Selected Poems from a poet whose career started when I was an eight year old, that feeling isn't there. A unique kind of buzz is, however.

Armitage actually saw something of the real world before finding his voice (he was a probation officer for seven years). Although interested in poems that want to crack the code for the Self, the Cosmos etc. he prefers poems that tell a story. He doesn’t think the more unreadable a poem is, the better it is. Unlike many modern poets, he is not just another product dropped off the Oxbridge Assembly Line.

The volume punches its weight. Excepts from Armitage’s growing list of translations are included for the first time alongside work that has previously appeared in limited editions. Armitage has never wanted for versatility but the whole is a pleasing reminder of how many plates he can spin.

I made a mental note of all the poems I hoped to see and tallied up how many did. Long-time favourites like 'It Ain't What You Do, It's What It Does To You', 'Great Sporting Moments: The Treble', 'The Two of Us', 'The Tyre', 'I Say I Say I Say' and 'Poem' (from Kid) all re-appear. So does 'To His Lost Lover' - which still strikes me as Armitage's best poem.

Surprisingly gems like 'Lines Thought to Have Been Written on the Eve of the Execution of a Warrant for His Arrest' and 'To Poverty' aren't here, which is a pity. I would loved to have seen more poems from his first collection, such as 'The Night Shift', 'Gone', 'Ten Pence Story' and 'Somewhere Along the Line'.

Like a singer varying the set list between gigs, Armitage has tweaked his selections. Of the poems from Zoom! 'And You Know What Thought Did' has been dropped, while two more - 'Phenomenology' and 'Don't Blink' - have been added. With the exception of Moon Country (which now contributes two poems rather than one), the number of poems taken from the later volumes has been cut, including the long poem ‘Five Eleven Ninety-Nine.’

While there are some first-rate poems like ‘All For One', 'Birthday' and 'The Shout' the quality control wobbles a little hereafter. 'The Spelling' is moving, but the poems from Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid tens to lack the power and quotability of the earlier work. I can appreciate a writer trying to do something different and break the mould but the 'poems' from Seeing Stars don’t work at all.

Thankfully things not only pick up from here, they soar. The excerpts from 'Black Roses - The Killing of Sophie Lancaster' are crisp, cinematic and urgent. The selections from In Memory of Water are superb. Armitage is known for his medium-sized poems that tell a story, often a comic one. But it's interesting to note how when he brings out his two-line stanzas all excess is dropped and tenderness dominates. Within the flinty joker there's a lyric poet trying to get out. After cameo appearances in 'To His Lost Lover', it's nice to see him grabbing the centre stage in beautiful poems like 'Snow'. I hope to see even more of him next time around.

[Ally Shand · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable collection to dip in and out of. Armitage is certainly a talented poet and he experiments with various forms.

I think the poem entitled 'Poundland' was my favourite. Here's a brief excerpt:

…beyond the hazard cone where serious chutney spillage had occurred.
Then emerged souls: the duty manager with a face like Doncaster,
mumbling, “For so much, what shall we give in return?”
…
In strangled words I managed,
“How art thou come to these shady channels, into hell’s ravine?”
…
And paid forthwith, then broke surface
and breathed extraordinary daylight into starved lungs,
steered for home through precincts and parks scalded by polar winds,
laden with whatnot, lightened of golden quids.

Quite an accurate representation of the stresses of shopping in Poundland!

[Joy Chalaby · Rating 3 out of 5]

Update: 3 stars.

To be fair there were some really lovely poems in this collection that I thoroughly enjoyed. It was more to do with frequently understanding what was the deeper meanings behind these poems, which I sadly was unable to do a lot of them. I have to be honest I frequently felt quite lost over the meaning and themes, so it made a real slog to get through the whole collection in time for my uni quiz. I look forward to hearing the lecture on "Paper Aeroplane" from Dr. Indy though!

However, some that I liked, or thought were interesting were: The Civilians, Zoom!, Gooseberry Season, I Say I Say I Say, and Before You Cut Loose, The Two of Us, Song of the West Men, and Listen Here, The Strid, the Kid, The Straight and Narrow, Leaves on the Line, Evening, Sloth, excerpts from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, excerpts from Out of the Blue, the Parting Shot, an Accommodation, I'll Be There to Love and Comfort You, the Accident, Aviators, Beyond Huddersfield, excerpts from Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, excerpts from The Death of King Arthur, excerpts from In Memory of Water (Stanza stones) -- this may have been my favourite part of the collection actually!, and finally Harmonium and Paper Aeroplane were good too. I also enjoyed "Thank You For Waiting" - one of Armitage's unpublished poems we read and analysed in class.

So actually overall, there were quite a few that I quite liked, but overall the reading experience was a little bit honestly boring and depressing. 2.5 stars, though after more study I might give it a 3-star rating. We'll see.

[Isobel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having already analysed many of the poems in depth, I decided to read the collection as a whole in one sitting, and man was that a good idea. Armitage has the ability to articulate feelings that everyone else struggles to describe, and his experimental use of form and language always blows me away. The Killing of Sophie Lancaster is an especially heart-wrenching piece, and Harmonium, the second to last poem of the collection, absolutely broke me. The only pieces that I'm not a big fan of are his translations of middle English tales, but perhaps that is more due to my disinterest in the period and style than any fault of his. Overall a brilliant collection, and an excellent introduction to one of the greatest contemporary poets in Britain.

[Chris Leathley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Few poets possess such imaginative range and restless appetite for meaning. Fewer still create such a body of work whilst maintaining a laconic grin at the world. Whether abstract or folkloric, documentary or fantasy, Armitage’s poetry rips across the page, scouring the reader’s mind and replacing dull sight with bold, kaleidoscopic hallucinations. Except, these illusions are honest in their reflections on the humble, the historic and the heroic. Magic yore for the modern world and Lord knows, we need more, much more to lose ourselves within. Bravo Simon!

[Steven Pilling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Collection of poems so far.

If you can listen to him reading them rather than read as they are better live (so to speak)

What armitage does so well is he writes work that is both current yet timeless.

Not sure what others think but i think armitage captures an emotional truth that few others have.

[Anne Strachan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absorbing introduction to the brilliant Simin Armitage. His poems speak of nature, of emotions, tragedies and human existence. They are witty, moving, heart-wrenching - sometimes at the same time.

There are also excerpts from his translations or dramatisations of the Odyssey, the Death of King Arthur and Gawain and the Green Knight.

This makes me want to read every book in this anthology.

[Christian Schwoerke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I’m inept at poetry, uncertain if I’m being conned by the haphazard line breaks that may or may not impart additional meaning, especially ignorant of meter and whether it’s being employed in any sort of consistent fashion. I can’t even claim to know it when I see it, as there’s a good deal of doggerel out there that looks real enough. Is poetry about the sound of language, or is it a thing shaped by language expertly wrought? Is it about things that lie beyond or within daily experience, or is it about things that are already of a poetic and elevated nature? Are stanzas like paragraphs? Why then do so many sentences break off in one stanza then flow into another?

As a poetry naïf, my only criteria are honesty, concision, and a rigorous use of language. Honesty is that Hemingwayesque appeal to what is real and earned, where the writer has evoked in the reader some sense of the rightness of things without having hit him over the head with it. Concision is obvious enough, as poems are short, thus must condense things to their essentials, whether representing things with apt description or evocative language. And this concision is achieved with rigorous use of language, where words often do double duty, denoting and connoting simultaneously.

Paper Aeroplane is a selection of poetry from 19 different volumes of Armitage’s poetry—with selections from three translations he’s made of the Odyssey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Le Morte d’Arthur—all spanning the 25 years since his first volume Zoom! appeared in 1989. I had never read any of Armitage's work before, and it was recommended. I read the book in the course of four or five days, reading no more than 10 poems at a time; I then re-read the book over the next two days, now able to recall individual poems and look over the expanse of the work more easily. I found it an interesting reading experience, requiring more attention and focus than reading almost any sort of novel.

What most characterizes Armitage’s free-flowing poetry is its vernacular straightforwardness. Like the conscious common-man poetry of William Carlos Williams, Armitage’s idiom is that of the Yorkshire man, and his personae speak of things within his ken in a language that will not put on airs. The first poem in the volume, “The Joke,” is a story told by the narrator, grabbing us by the collar, asking, “heard the one about the guy from Heaton Mersey?” which goes on to recount the Heaton Mersey man’s freezing death, how that became occasion for those at the pub to discuss who was to be credited for finding the car that had been so thoroughly coated and hidden by snow. The directness of language prevails even when emotion is broached, as in “Harmonium,” where the narrator, collecting an old organ from a church, is made to consider that the rector or minister who helps him will be in the next box the narrator lugs from the church. There’s no good response to the rector’s pitiable observation of mortality, and the narrator, “being me, then mouth in reply / some shallower sorry phrase or word / too starved of breath to make itself heard.”

Armitage in economical fashion is able to set a scene and sketch a story, a vignette, or a portrait. There is immediacy and particularity. While all of his poetry sums up an English “Northerness,” the poems themselves elaborate a particularity that is only itself, a poem about this or that. “Horses, M62”—which describes how a dozen horses have left their pasture to mingle with the idling cars on the adjacent three-lane highway—suggests contrasts and even biblical portent, but it remains a picture of a unique and isolated moment filled with real horses. “The writhing mat of its hide / pressed on the glass— / a tank of worms— / a flank / of actual horse…”

In “The Strid” the male narrator speaks from beyond the grave, as perhaps a specter haunting the moors, much in the tradition of old northern ballads of forlorn maidens, but his idiom is contemporary and the voice is querulous. The doomed groom cannot fathom how he and his bride attempted to cross the wide strid in their wedding clothes, and now they lie before the coroner, swollen, “dead to the world, husband and wife.” Another poem that might serve as cautionary tale, “Evening” speaks in the second person to the reader, how you at age 12 or 13 wander from the house, taking in the sights and feel of the wood and streams close by, then as day slips by and evening prods you to return home, you discover yourself a middle-aged man with a family. “You’re sorry. You thought / it was early. How did it get so late?”

Armitage is able to conjure a spectrum of emotion and attitude, all in voices that speak in a natural manner. There are poems that soar into hyperbole, contrast, and metaphor, but there is a homely image that lies at their center. There are poems that give his personae different selves that act independently of the narrator, which illustrate the common-place frustration of bodies and minds that cannot behave. There are poems that exhort with personae that declaim like false prophets to audiences (surrogate readers), and it is for us to separate the wheat from the chaff, to understand the narrator’s need to so boldly stand in the pulpit. There are poems that traffic in rhythmic phrasing, some using repeated refrain, the message as much in these devices as the words. There are the prose poems from his collection Seeing Stars (2010), which are more surreal than most, but nonetheless keep themselves anchored with a plain-spoken voice, dialect, and allusions to the realities of a Yorkshire man’s existence.

And finally, there is the eponymous poem “Paper Aeroplane,” which like one or two others hints at the mysterious process of writing poetry. In this last, the magic lies in the blank pages of the book the narrator’s seatmate is reading on an airplane: these blank pages, the narrator is told, are his best work yet…

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my fave British poets. Poem, November, The Catch, Kid, To His Lost Lover, Homecoming, The Parting Shot, All For One, just some of the poems that make this such a great collection.

[Jack Mckeever · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read many collations on Simon Armitage's work throughout my life. From the age of about 16 until now, his poetry has been something of a comfort blanket to me. Always there, always earthy, always able to eek out a sort of homely eeriness inspired by what's immediately around. And while the poetry I write is mostly inspired by urban settings, Armitage's ability to transform his sprawling Yorkshire homeland into a sometimes cosy, sometimes claustrophobic headspace is inspiring.

I'd read many of the poems in Paper Aeroplane before, but when pulled together they form a sort of narrative. Not so much an evolution as a composite way into Armitage's head. But one of the most pleasant surprises was how much these poems relied on humour. If his work has ever come across as stuffy or *too* quietly English, then that's blown out of the water here.

The poems are frequently shocking, but the lines flit between lowest-common-denominator wit and excavation and genuine respect. The best examples are 'You're Beautiful', where he paints himself as a hateful cretin in the shadow of a lover's goodness, and 'Brassneck', where the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster are used to provide depth to two thieves.

I'm not sure is the best place to start with Armitage. I'd say 2019's Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic is the greatest way into his cadence. But once/if you're in, there's no way this will disappoint.

[Graham Hiscock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've not read Armitage before, but saw this collection at my local Library and though I'd give it a go.

I enjoyed this collection - the poems are accessible and readable but never facile or superficial. It's difficult to single out favourite poems but I enjoyed "Man with a Golf Ball Heart" and the selections from "Seeing Stars".

I will certainly read some of the full collections.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd have just bought this if I'd seen it before Collected Poems, but there's enough variation from the half of this book that covers the same period that I don't mind too much.
Not really sure what to get next.

[Charlotte]

Thank god my friend told me we didn't need to read this for the quiz because I was torturing myself trying to read this. Do not recommend if you don't like poems. I guess I liked I Say I Say I Say but honestly I'm not a poem person so trying to read 200+ page poem collection was the worst.

[Pollyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for uni. Pretty blokey sometime, but real smart structure and imagery.

[han · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favourite poems:
- Kid
- About His Person
- Mother, Any Distance
- Killing Time #2
- You’re Beautiful
- Out Of The Blue
- Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster

[Charlotte E.E. Griffiths · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paper Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014 was my first experience of Simon Armitage's work. Assigned as a reading task at uni to a student studying writing but specialising in poetry; I could not have been gladder than to study this collection of poetry.
Written over the years of Armitage's career, this collection of poems captures human experience as a whole; a collection of memories, ideals and anecdotes from varying ages and stages of life combined. With no prior experience of such a current and refined poet, I found Paper Aeroplane a breeze to get into, with themes pertaining to all aspects of everyday life and everything laced with multiple meanings - relatable with such a pleasure. As someone with high standards for poetry, I was awestruck.
Since reading this collection of poetry, I have found a great deal of respect for Armitage's writing and more so for his "How to write Poetry: Checklist" shared on The Guardian, which helped connect some of those dots in regard to his poetry as a whole. I definitely recommend this book for any poetry lovers, regardless of what style you're into - it seems he has a knack for any kind - and more so recommend giving his article a read to help understand his process and, as a result, his work, better. This is a great first-time experience of Armitage's writing/poetry and speaks volumes for his craft and honest voice in all stages of his life. For a collection of this size and consistency to come from such a modern poet, we must all pay our respects to this CBE!
To have a legend like this still living; I could not be happier to be alive.

[Paul Bullock · Rating 4 out of 5]

The bane of my GCSEs is pretty solid actually. Darker and funnier than I remember.

[Cat]

A solid collection- full of some absolute gems.

Personal favourites:
- "I am very bothered when I think..." (Book of Matches)
- "Meanwhile, somewhere in the state of Colorado..." (Killing Time)
- The Shout (Universal Home Doctor)
- A Vision (Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus The Corduroy Kid)
- Excerpt from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
- All of In Memory of Water
- Paper Aeroplane (The Unaccompanied)

Excited to read more of his work in the future, especially his translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in its entirety.

[Nick Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wasn't expecting much from this but very pleasantly surprised.
SA writes in the vernacular but that makes his incursions into the lyrical all the more striking. He doesn't take himself seriously which makes his serious points all the more penetrating. He is witty which makes his poignant moments all the more poignant. Overall very impressive. Pretty much everything that Falling Awake wasn't

[Tynnika]

I haven't rated because I loathe poetry and my biased review would be unfair to Armitage's work. Had to read for uni this semester and it was a challenge.

[Gareth Culshaw · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant. real poetry. possibly the next poets laureate?

[Matilda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Look, it wasn’t terrible, but the only reason I read this was for my contemporary literature course. I quite liked the poem ‘The Christening’. I absolutely HATED ‘My Heart’.

[Francisca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Armitage es uno de poetas más prolíficos y reconocidos del panorama actual en la poesía británica. Poeta laureado, con muchos y largos poemarios a sus espaldas, tenemos aquí los que corresponden, con alevosía, a los recogidos y escogidos entre 1989 y 2014. Con traducción, prólogo y notas del gran Jordi Doce, nos metemos de lleno en su mundo tan peculiar y tan humano. Digo humano como digo hombre como digo perro como digo fruta. Aquí la fisicidad se vuelve lo más importante.

No estoy acostumbrada a leer este tipo de poesía, tan natural (la poesía artificiosa me ha nublado un poco la vista) y tan directa y cotidiana que nos detalla la vida que pasa, la vida corriente, la vida de allí y de aquí y de allá. Estamos ante una poesía que se nutre de la experiencia vivida, de un yo que pesa sobre las cosas, pero también pesan esas cosas de las que habla Armitage. Una no puede salir a flote sin agarrarse a poemas como estos, donde el sol brilla como una lentejuela. Las metáforas son vivas y elocuentes y los pasos dados se escurren allá por donde pasamos. Estos poemas se escurren por nuestros dedos, pasamos las páginas y no nos damos cuenta de que cada poema parece un relato, una historia. Es este libro un poemario de poemarios llenos de historias, creo que no hay nada que lo defina mejor, que lo presente mejor. Me gusta cuando Armitage nos presenta a animales, o nos presenta un acontecimiento pasado, o su hogar, o su gente amada. Armitage los recoge como si recogiera pequeños juguetes para formar una casa, una ciudad, un condado, un país.

No podemos salir de estos poemas como salimos cuando leemos una novela o un ensayo, pero estos poemas requieren de un aspecto fundamental en estas dos últimas cosas: la lucidez. Sin duda los poemas de Avión de papel son poemas lúcidos, escogidos por su nivel de conciencia sobre el estado en el que nos hallamos ante la vida. Dice Jordi Doce que un buen poema es siempre algo o mucho más que la suma de sus partes, no le falta razón. Y estos poemas son buenos, dilucidan mundos, sobre todo el mundo de Armitage, lo que le concierne. Estamos así ante una poesía de la experiencia, de lo concreto, de lo también artificioso y natural en el mundo humano. Conforme leemos, vamos creando la historia que nos cuenta. Cada poema da lugar a esos mundos que hallamos en este y de los cuales no nos damos cuenta a no ser que estemos muy pendientes.

La poesía de Simon Armitage es una poesía de la otredad, del otro, pero también del yo. Aquí no hay yo sin otro como no hay otros sin nosotros. Para que esta poesía exista se debe recoger una experiencia de la vida, de lo concreto en la vida material. Profundamente humana, la poética de Armitage nos señala aspectos de la realidad –-de la de aquí, de la de allá––, una realidad que podemos ver en estos poemas como si estuviésemos viendo una película independiente. Hay ecos a ello, como si estuviésemos viendo, claramente, una película con Philip Seymour Hoffman o el mundo de la película Paterson de Jim Jarmusch si estuviese rodado en Inglaterra.

Pero no nos vayamos por las ramas, la poesía de Armitage es una poesía de lo cotidiano, de lo que abunda en la realidad. Es una poesía que podemos tocar y percibir. Está aquí. Estamos ante una poesía que ni quiere ni puede irse a ninguna otra parte. La tocamos con nuestras manos, con nuestros dedos, le damos una patada con nuestros pies, la miramos con nuestros ojos y la saboreamos con nuestra boca. Poesía de lo tangible y lo material. Y la apresamos para que no se vaya, para que no se marche a ningún lugar. Una puede quedarse muy cómoda en el sillón que nos prestan estos poemas, pero a veces se reclina y debemos adaptarnos, debemos levantarnos para regular lo que se va cayendo y cayendo y cayendo, hasta la vida más allá de la vida.

[Domhnall · Rating 5 out of 5]

The language is clear and accessible. Some of the poems are very nicely written and pleasing, not least a selection describing water in its different aspects, as snow, rain, mist, dew, puddle, beck. Many more held striking lines or passages. A few seemed deep and intimate. Several samples from his translations of old English writing (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Death of King Arthur) were impressive enough to suggest buying the full work and he exploited that archaic writing style in a very clever parody, included in this book, locating Homer’s Underworld in a modern branch of Poundland. Some poems were disconcerting and even surreal. Some speak from within the mind of a criminal: a pick pocket, a murderer, possibly a psychopath. In several he writes as a soldier.

These poems are not after all entirely clear or accessible; they just seem to be. They work on different levels at the same time and certainly it is worth the effort to investigate them. I could not unravel them without assistance and the internet turns out to be replete with material; lots of people have an opinion and some are pretty negative. Type in ‘Simon Armitage’ and expect to lose whole days reading the results. Biographical information is, as expected, a good start. It really is critical for example to know that he wrote some of his poems using his notes of interviews with prisoners, soldiers and others, often women, in effect giving their authentic voices a fresh avenue of expression through his poetry. One source in particular that I appreciated was just a list of his collaborations with the BBC, of which there are many, just because it established that this is a writer with a heavy workload, taking on challenging and very diverse projects, collaborating with other artists and working to imposed constraints, often producing poetry to be heard – perhaps sung - rather than read, sometimes within a film or a play. That source led me astray to buy and read Black Roses, The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
which is brief enough but very powerful, and also to discover a YouTube video of Songbirds, which is strong stuff. Both demonstrate a very clear social or even political commitment. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMGt4...

I got most help from another book, Simon Armitage by Ian Gregson; he brings a theoretical framework through which to consider the work critically. The poems respond well to analysis and comparison with other poets; they do not break under scrutiny. Gregson’s book itself, I have to admit, becomes rather dense and lost me in some of its more refined abstractions. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

This rush to read Armitage, and to read about him, was in preparation for a live reading of his own work, for which I had obtained a golden ticket by good fortune. The main interest at that event came from some remarks he made about his poems as he went along. For example he was told by one reviewer that his book “Seeing Stars” (from which there is a selection in this volume) was not really poetry at all. In reply, Armitage said that poetry can be written in any style whatsoever, and he was therefore quite proud to have discovered a way of writing that could be called ‘not-poetry’ with such confident authority.

It is quite possible and reasonable to read this selection for pleasure and enjoy its diversity; it is far more accessible, more fun and more interesting than the average. It is possible also to explore it in depth, and the poetry is strong enough to withstand even a serious critical analysis. This is essential reading but always enjoyable.

[D.K. Powell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having reviewed Armitage's latest book a few months ago and not finding it quite as good as some of the selected poems I've read over the years, I decided to see if I could rekindle my love for this poet by reading his collection of - presumably - his best works.

I wasn't disappointed. I guess the nature of writing very short form pieces is that you write a lot of them over a period of several decades and not all can be the same quality. A recent collection will have hits and also probably a fair amount of misses. But a collected works clears away the chaff and leaves all the best - at least in theory. On the whole, Armitage has done exactly that.

It is telling that certain books - such as Xanadu, Killing Time and Mister Heracles - only get to have one or two poems making the cut of this volume. I don't why more weren't considered but I'd hazard a guess the poet or his editor didn't like them so much. The Universal Home Doctor, by contrast, has ten poems included. It must have been a good one.

Technically, this is a collection of 'selected poems' rather than a 'greatest hits', so we can't say that Armitage has made his selections according to what he thinks are the best. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to infer he thinks these poems are pretty damned hot, even if merely based on his personal favourites. It would be weird to have so famous and loved a poet who is rubbish at working out which are his best.

That said, I must dock him a star - out of spite - for completely missing one of his very best and most provocative of poems: Remains. Much loved and oft studied because of its inclusion in the AQA GCSE poetry anthology, it is the perfect gateway poem for giving young minds a love for this kind of writing. After all, short form poetry is the TikTok of the literary world. It is a puzzle, a game, to work out the meaning; and it is super short so it never gets boring. Perfect for our current generation used to fast information available in their pockets at all times. How could Armitage miss this poem?!

In fairness, it isn't a perfect book. There's still some poems here that I simply don't find engaging. Even in a collected works, it is still possible to have some misses. Some of this will probably just be that a particular poem 'isn't for me', while someone else will think it sublime. But some are just duds, I suspect. Not many though; on the whole, this is a wonderful collection. There's an eclectic mix between forms, styles and levels of seriousness.

I particularly like the selections that Armitage calls 'prose poems'; more usually they would be thought of as flash fiction. I guess the label of 'poem' comes more from the feel of these as there's a mysterious, ethereal quality to all of them; like something you have to figure out for yourself. But I also enjoy the quirky, silly ones like 'To-Do List'. Even here, there's things to mull over. The final word hits you hard and leaves you not so much with the smile you did just have on your face, but a thoughtful reflectiveness instead. It's rather effective.

So then, overall, this is a great collection of poems from an excellent poet, one who well deserves his reputation. They are very British, very down to earth and dealing with themes that affect us all. There's no lofty thoughts here, just quiet reflections on life. Armitage challenges us to embrace ourselves and accept us as frail and human. He comforts us by acknowledging that he's exactly that too. You aren't intimidated by these poems. They're messages from a friend you don't know yet. I wouldn't want my poetry to be any other way.

[Readiverse · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decided to read this because I really enjoyed the Marsden Poems a few years ago. This collection pulls together poems from Armitage’s other collections spanning the 80s to the 2010s, providing a variety of themes, tones and levels of mastery. It was interesting to reflect on the journey of the poet himself through the timeline of his work.

I particularly enjoyed poems based on the natural elements towards the end of the collection:

‘snow like water asleep’ like ‘a coded muteness to battle all noise, to stall movement, to still time’

‘mist is water in ghost state’

Beyond these more sober themes, there were poems that were far less serious, showcasing Armitage’s ability to turn a comedic phrase, my favourite of these being his description of relaxing on the sofa as ‘arse time.’

Other poems in the collection such as ‘Poundland’ provided an interesting way to look at modern consumer habits and the everyday, supposedly mundane happenings in the retail space. Such poems were a testament to the gift of the poet’s eye; an opportunity to reanalyse what we take for granted and explore what it says about us as humans.

There were a few historical poems which I admit were probably the ones I appreciated the least because I did not adequately research the context to grasp their intended meanings. However, much of the collection is accessible.

There was definitely a poem or two which felt like intrusive thoughts had been given full reign of the poet’s pen but these were merit-worthy in their own way if not to my personal tastes.

Overall, it was a journey even if it was not as enjoyable as the Marsden collection.

[Frank Callaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this I was not really aware of the work of Simon Armitage. I knew he was Poet Laureate, but nothing of his work.
In fact I have recently been reading quite a lot of poetry, not writing it, just reading. Alongside this edition I have been inching my way through 'The Poetry Pharmacy', which has been sitting around by my chair for an absolute age.
I have enjoyed the experience and I'm sure it makes me calmer. Mind you, some would say it's difficult to tell, as I rarely get very engaged about matters.
I enjoyed this collection. There was plenty of humour contained within the various verses collected, and a great deal of it aimed at himself. There was also a lot of sensitive writing.
As ever, I much prefer it when the verse does not contain profundities,. I rarely think this necessary or that it adds to the sentiments. Phrases like, 'A car clears its throat in the lane', I very much warm to. There's a great deal of that use of language in his verse, and I find myself deliberately reading it slowly, and re-reading lines, so that I can absorb the full meaning. Occasionally I am left perplexed at what is intended.
So here is a volume I recommend, poetry lover or not. It's great to dip into at any time

[Dominic]

The second collection of poems that I have read cover to cover and it shares something with the last. The book is a compilation, or more accurately a 'best of' series of poems written by Simon Armitage. In this context there is a lack of through-line and connection between the poems, however the book does group poems from certain books together. This style creates a snippet into greater works, almost window shopping, but at the same time lacking depth.

Outside of the books structure the actual content, Armitage's poems, have an absorbing rhythm to them. This rhythm isn't contained in lines or stanzas but makes you read through borders that your eyes are telling your brain to stop at. Reading aloud with this rhythm is what actually makes it noticeable. Silently reading is far less active, as opposed to the dynamic nature of his writing.

When it comes to subject matter, Armitage relates poems to the world around him. A middle to lower class England that he translates to a point of relation to the world of the reader themselves.

[Maik Arnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

This beautifully Selected Poem edition shows a cross-section of Simon Armitage's writings, poetic genres, and topics. Armitage shows this talent in describing feelings that most of us are not able to articulate. I greatly enjoyed the "It Ain’t What You Do It’s What It Does to You" (p. 11) and "Zoom!" (p. 23). He plays with different free forms that enriched my little pocket of poetry knowledge, such as: "*" (p. 112) and "Leaves on the Line" (p. 115). Possibly, next on my nightstand will be Homer's Odyssey (2006); a first taste was delivered in the poem "Odysseus" (p. 132). Overall, this collection, gives an excellent overview of the Armitage's oeuvre and one of the greatest contemporary poets of our times. Very much recommend this collection to all who want are seeking an introduction to the brilliant Simin Armitage.