Oh Simon!

'And I was travelling lightly, barefoot
over bedrock, then through lands that were stitched
with breadplant and camomile. Or was it

burdock. For a living I was driving
a river of goats towards clean water,
when one of the herd cut loose to a cave

on the skyline. To flush it out'

I first came across the work of Simon Armitage a few years ago. He is an English Poet and I think he's ammmmmmmazing. Ive never read something that so immediatly and intensely pulled on my heart strings. Not so long ago I acquired a collection of particular interest - Dead Sea Poems. His witty, often wicked humour is thought provoking yet peculiarly traditional:

'I shaped
a sling from a length of cotton bandage,
or was it a blanket, then launched a rock

at the target, which let out a racket -
the tell-tale sound of man-made objects.
Inside the cave like a set of skittles
stood a dozen caskets, and each one gasped -
a little theatrically perhaps'

The unpredicatble format demands attention and makes pauses unavoidable. Were reading the poem exactly the way Armitage intended.
The Poet is in his forties and lives in West Yorkshire. He still writes poetry but has dabbled in film, radio and television in recent years. To date, he has scripted four stage plays and two novels.

'when opened, then gave out a breath of musk

and pollen, and reaching down through cool sand
I found poems written in my own hand.
Being greatly in need of food and clothing,

and out of pockets, I let the lot go
for twelve times nothing, but saw them again
this spring, on public display, out of reach

under infra-red and ultra-sonic,
apparently worth an absolute packet.
Knowing now the price of my early art

I have gone some way towards taking it all
to heart, by bearing it all in mind, like
praying, saying it over and over

at night, by singing the whole of the work
to myself, every page of that innocent,
everyday, effortless verse, of which this

is the first'