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

yes indeed-ee, you have just found the centre
of the leisured, chattering classes of ramsgate.
Here you find writers, painters, stage & film people,
opera stars, * sculptors, geniuses,                               * oh really
aristocrats and beggars, buggers* and bankers.     * now steady
here is the raw stuff of Shakespeare* -         * stuffed raw with shakespeare  
all the characters for a play.
But you will not find the Grey Men* here (TS Eliot). * except between 10 &  
                                                                                                           12 noon
though you will find Malheur here:
seven grades of belgian beer, yet not a hint of a poet*           * no comment
frederick the great is said to have said:
Speak Italian to your mistress, French to diplomats and   
                                                                 German to your horse.
and that was only in bed.
Here we speak in tongues, even English.*       * well, Thanet, a local patois
now listen up for this last bit:
So come in and drink and when you are peckish
demand sustenance before you faint from drink and talk.
                half hidden in the restaurant in the rear
stands a sculpted metal figure of a male, presumably youthful,
with a wang the size of a six footer’s forearm.
elderly women come from the outlying areas
(if you’ll excuse the expression) to witness the wang —
ever suspenseful and watchful, as if about to swing
and do something really useful, which it never does.*  * all rather a let down, 
                                                                                                                 really
               The Ramsgate Royal Harbour Brewhouse & Bakery
is a truly cosmopolitan cafe - and unfailingly memorable, excepting
                                                                                      its title.
for those in difficulty, however, classes are available,
and a five-week* induction course has been initiated  * make that five months
at Thanet Tech with the intention of helping those
who find themselves unable to memorize in full,
the title of their favourite cultural centre and watering hole.
    so just remember what Confucius is said to have said to have said:
    Only in Dark room do you see Prints of Darkness.