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

how you change
breath        it's a matter of

heart

did you ever get the meaning
how can you love someone
                                           and not hold on
                                                                   mean it
to wish you well
                         lines from Joyce's 'Exiles'   /
                                                                  /   not supplied

in the next bed the little greek with a white beard 

                    got the

pissing his life away

I fell in love — for the very first time today

she passes in the new uniform

I consent to have my lung patched

when there is nothing left to say
                      work begins

out of nothing comes

posit     matter and energy     only form changes 
             nothing removed or added
             equation existence

clear thinking
right action

the weight of the smoke
                 of the argument?

the cards placed in sequence
                                   on the table nineteen seventy six
to explain     past     present     future
a sense of loss which must be overcome
the special position
                   sometimes to command
 
this fall
           first for weeks
                  the skaffold glistens
                                             up the walls
                                               of the institution

we lay back in our air conditioned rooms
                                            watching the world
                                                               as if

medication

music on the radio
                         how come you dance so good

I'm no schoolboy but I know what I like

lay back     tie the cord     raise the vein
'you've got tough skin'      flush and O
                  not the dope      the abuse     shrinking back
through barbarism and pain into abstraction      O

                                                 do it again baby
                                                             do it again

Anyone who comes into vision
                    we don't have that much time

                                                       — the sentimental songs

make me cry       (that's a plea 

my first love
                  three words I choke on
                                                     a character in my dream

last night
              a real person sitting on the end of the bed
this evening
                  someone to phone up when I'm scared
you.