Product Description

Losing none of the exuberance and verbal agility which have become a hallmark of Simon Armitage's poetry, these poems are more obviously personal - the ensuing risks, of vulnerability and exposure, more dangerous. The poems mark a coming-of-age of a poet who is by now established as a leading voice. The book is arranged in three sections. The first part, the "Book of Matches", is a series of sonnets. Each poem is designed to relay the urgency of a struck match, packed with discoveries, flashes of insights on family and life. The poems in the middle section, "Becoming of Age" relate incidents, from other times, other lives and experiences, to a common life. The final section, "Reading the Bans", is a moving sequence of poems on the poet's marriage.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #96199 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

Customer Reviews

breathtaking
'To his lost Lover' brought myself and my lover together. I have never been more inspired, made jelly-legged and envious of a poet. These poems seem straight forward but they are subtly layered, like slate which whilst seeming thin is actually made up of a myriad carefully arranged skins. Brilliant!

The Elvis of Poetry....
I think this is one of the best poetry collections of the last 30 yrs.

The opening salvo of 'My party piece' is a spine-chiller and through to the last piece in that section describing a burnt-out Armitage in self-destruct mode sitting in his car- this is a modern classic which taps the Zeitgeist in a way only he can.

And I have to agree with the other reviewer about To a lost lover - your toes curl at the combination of intimacy, sensitivity and agonising regret.

Someone once said that 'poetry is the new rock n'roll' - if Elvis were alive today he would be writing poetry like this...

Thank you Simon.

Neil

a breath of fresh air
at last a contemporary poet who has managed to combine a unique voice with such outdated notions as craft and technique. perhaps he can lead us out of the waste land poetry has become mired as it is with all those recent meaningless... poets.