A is for Armitage

Welcome to the Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2015. Having spent the weekend doing quite a bit of research for my poetry theme I hope I have found an interesting selection. I confess I favour modern rather than older 'classic' poetry but hope there will be something for every taste over the coming weeks. Simon Armitage is among my favourite poets (previously reviewed here and here) so it was inevitable that he would be the first port of call for my A to Z of Poetry. So to kick us off I give you Night Shift, which I have taken from 'The New Poetry' (currently out of print) from Bloodaxe Books. It is quite typical I felt of much of his work that I have read, quietly understated but evocative images and just a hint of melancholy.

Night Shift by Simon Armitage

Once again I have missed you by moments;

steam hugs the rim of the just-boiled kettle,

water in the pipes finds its own level.

In another room there are other signs

of someone having just left: dust, unsettled

by the sweep of the curtains; the clockwork

contractions of the paraffin heater.

For weeks now we have come and gone, woken

in the acres of empty bedding, written

lipstick love-notes on the bathroom mirror

and in this space we have worked and paid for

we have found ourselves, but lost each other.

Upstairs, at least, there is understanding

in things more telling than lipstick kisses:

the air, still hung with spores of your hairspray;

body-heat stowed in the crumpled duvet.

(Linking back to the A to Z Challenge)