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

‘Crewing up’
                  out of darkness
fifty years and more
of radio silence
                  I trace a course
visibility poor

~

White Christmas
                 on a gramophone
somewhere distant
pinpoints
                     fixes
   dot to dot
(navigation lights off)
we’re for Köln

~

I take my bearings
                     climbing
echo to echo
         Charleroi     Namur
Grasmere     Ilfracombe
            the Wash
    (self as centre)

~

climbing
         Kingston by-pass
A3 flyover      Decca building
     Escort  passenger side
cuts us up
                      steady now
force him over      terrorise
  rap on the windscreen      what are you
you’re a cunt        that’s what you are
                now    where was I

~

  Cala Ratjada
sipping at the poolside
      our German neighbour
mentions Gladbach
                  ‘bombed there’

a minor blow
             to diplomatic relations

~

          18.31       flak?
             bombs gone
    beware Schragmusik
185 Gladbach 8       248 Gladbach 11
             255 Gladbach 15

~

Nippes Marshalling Yards
        ‘tonight without fail’
    just like      the ones
          sleigh bells
                            ringing

~

checklist:    Mae West    sub mariner’s sweater
                          silks harness
    chart
           pinned   to table
                     (self as centre)

~

second can get you out of trouble
          out and then
in when you’re cornering    see    there you are
          trying to save my life again
pilot head iced up       airspeed unknown
               Leeds Loughton
        M1      M11

~

North Foreland 29
       Selsey Bill       marble clack
          pebble gradations

     bottom bottom bugger
                          bugger
                    bottom
       sod

                   the cracked leather
he Imp or the Popular
         behave you two
right
     okay       we’re stopping the car

~

clean through lights on red
                in Laval
        wrong side of the road
cruising in top
  one hundred and fifty five
nautical miles per hour
      by my calculations

~

I repeat        I am a ni-hil-ist
                   to anybody out there
in     The Crosby
                         The Oswald The Bluebell
          (   rough that last one   )
I’ve been meaning to do this for years

         Oh my blood brothers

~

     weed-cracked     runway
ghost squadron     ah     Elsham     ‘crewing up’
     out of darkness
Forbes Westcott     Armstrong
         visibility poor

Oh my blood brothers

        the many men      you know you know

~

accelerate out of trouble
                  (we’re for Köln)
airspeed unknown
somewhere distant
                    on a gramophone

~

always have somewhere to go
        Ewell     Tech     Ebbisham     St. Martin’s
              Nonsuch     Cheam
hi-ho silver lining
          commence homing
      never reaching the end

~

or      Stille Nacht
           faces lit
                  from below
masses        dressing    trees
              mouthing at candles
                       incendiaries

~

some terrible revenge thing

~

          hey you there
                               with the glasses
already celebrating
         you’re gonna reap just what
you sow
             not one of them knows
        where I’m coming from

~