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

Ah, the conquistadors!
In a way they got it right
                                         confident of the answers
certain of the questions, of their convictions
setting out from nowhere.
                       What is the world, who are the people?
And yes, what is the world and who were they -
so sublimely confident, so cofidently sublime
that they could count on
                                a safe passage between continents
the turtle shells of their ships
                   arriving exactly where they intended ...

The conquistadors!
and those other, their companion explorers
                conquerors blundering round Tierra del Fuego
and the edge of New Holland into the Pacific -
such distances, such incredible distances!
                                              while here, in Auckland
it’s difficult to arrive at conclusions, to understand
to bridge the spare half-meter that divides
- that separates - the two of us:
                                  chain mail, an endless silence
and the emptiness -
                        the emptiness of a vanished world    

Yes, the conquistadors!
You fly to Europe, to the Middle East
                careless of the difficulties of the journey
thinking of politics - not in such terms as
               the capacities of foot soldiers, of horsemen
their ability to deal with the unexpected -
                                                              with danger
You climb over the invisible edge of the world
                          and it’s there, everything, all of it,
            a matter of statistics - the final disaster …