Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

the painted face of things
clowns, bells, a house collapsed
the conjuror now crushed
beneath his weight in playing cards

a snapping sound
spools outward
from the ornamental clock
and man and woman both appear

rain
fine

and suddenly I laugh - I have no shame
I howl like dogs
my polar dogmatist I speak
conflicting words at once
and hold opposing views self-evident

I shout that contraries are true
and demonstrate the one the other
that the night is proof of day
and east of west
and pole of pole and all between

the
      bookish
                    groan
                              and
                                     grimace,
                                                   how
                                                           they
                                                                   would
                                                                              contend
                                                                                            with
                                                                                                    birdsong;

and
       the
             prince
                        of
                             demagogues
                                                 the
                                                       convocation
                                                                           of
                                                                                the
                                                                                      great
                                                                                               debaters

is refuted by a single sunrise
and its papers scattered, burning