Simon Armitage
Simon Armitage
Simon Robert Armitage CBEis an English poet, playwright and novelist. On 19 June 2015, Armitage was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry, succeeding Geoffrey Hill...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth26 May 1963
active appears covers four ingredient poetry rather slim thin three tried volumes
I'd never really been content with just churning out these slim volumes every three or four years. I've always tried to think of poetry as an active ingredient in the language rather than just something that appears between the covers of thin books.
guilty homer measure time
I even feel guilty if I'm reading a novel, because I think I should be reading Homer again. I don't really know what free time is, because I don't have something to measure it against.
behind both felt grateful home road town travelling
Occasionally it's been a long and bumpy road - one I'm still travelling - but I've always felt like my home town has been solidly behind me and I'm both grateful and proud.
closed home inviting local looking open reminds staying throwing
It reminds me to say that staying local should never be about looking at the world through a closed window, but about making a home then throwing the doors open and inviting the world in.
point
I'd got to a point where I wanted a break.
people had-enough might
I wondered if people might not have had enough of Simon Armitage and wondered whether I hadn't had enough of Simon Armitage.
war loss hands
And wonder, dread and war have lingered in that land where loss and love in turn have held the upper hand.
new-york squares zippers
I once stood in the middle of New York city watching my name go round the electronic zipper sign in Times Square and I felt pretty thrilled, but not quite as thrilled as I felt when I saw my name in the Examiner for the first time.
home hands hatred
This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture. Keep hold of what you have, it will harm no other, for hatred comes home to the hand that chose it.
karma misfortunes
This misfortune you find is of your own manufacture.
thinking voice needs
We still need a voice that thinks before it speaks.
heart mind towns
The Huddersfield that I like best is a large town with a big heart and an open mind.
war meditation ironic
I intend 'Dämmerung' to be an ironic meditation on the financial rewards of poetry and a tragicomic lament on the passing of time and the changes in literary taste. The other poets mentioned are my poetic cohort from the U.K. I wrote the piece in situ, as it were, while making a television documentary about World War I in Germany.
dad handwriting charity
Killing time in the precinct, I find a copy of one of my early volumes in a dump-bin on the pavement outside the charity shop. The price is 10p. It is a signed copy. Under the signature, in my own handwriting, are the words, "To mum and dad".