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

1. Dead Sea Scrawl
(for Micky Ofrat)

Invisible Anglers
Patiently sit
By the Dead Sea
And supervise
The formation of crystals.

Voluble Prospectors
Vibrate their coachwork.
Small change pans out
Among the Kleenex.

Straight tourists
Consume Herod’s view
Then funiculate down
To the (ah) Cafeteria.

The Sodom Apple
Bears an attractive
Fruit.

Are miracles made
For human beings
Or vice versa?

2. My Imperfect Host
(for Dennis Silk)

The beetle on his door-sill
Respectable as a funeral
Was invited to go outside
As kindly as the poet
Asks you which chair
You find most comfortable
Gently and enquiring
With his whole moonish face
And most attentive eyes
About the health of one
Who is not at the party
Where he goes to the kitchen
To find the things to eat
And another bottle of wine
He fetched from the Old City
Earlier in the day

The beetle was not unwelcome
Or at all disliked
But he had I understood
Let in several others
Before this one blundered
Down on the threshold
And there is perhaps not a limit
But a moment when
One begins to be aware
Of the possibility
Of frankly too many beetles
Visiting at a time
Even the handsome gentleman
Like Sir Moses’ landau
Under the Windmill might
From this point of view
Be considered de trop

The poor are always with us
But who can refrain from tears
At the sensitive kindness
Of my imperfect host
Whose perfect humanity
Shines out from under
Those very innocent eyebrows
Assuring you of his
Complete attention

Whose mind is a clean room
Recently swept
Containing a bed a chair
And an open window.