Prof Simon’s poetry amuses and informs
published numerous poetry collections, plays and novels and has appeared in many television and radio programs. He speaks with a relaxed, comfortable air of a man in his proper place and at ease with his audience. The accessible nature of much of his writing, creates an effective connection to each listener.
The poet opened with his satirical verse ‘Thank You For Waiting’ a thought-provoking poem that confronts the listener with the uncomfortable truths of a stratified society even whilst at the same time making them laugh. From there the sell-out audience in St Chad’s Parish Church was completely absorbed.
Reading mostly from his most recent book The Unaccompanied he told poetic stories of summer relationships. The last bus home from Marsden, an entertaining view of wine-tasting and a newly-built cemetery where ‘the departed have yet to arrive.’
He sometimes writes about things the English do very badly, one of those being space travel; so, he entertained the audience with The English Astronaut (written before the recent exploits of Tim Peake).
From his book ‘Flit,’ which came from a residency at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, we heard a poem about fishing, written by a man who has never been fishing and later on another about a place called Burrow Mump in Somerset, a place the poet has never visited. These poems amused and informed whilst giving lie to the old adage about writing about what you know.
Rounding off the evening answering questions from the audience about his recent residency at The Parsonage, his thoughts on Britain’s relationship with Europe and how it feels to have your poems on the English Curriculum, Simon Armitage showed himself to be as thoughtful and fluent in speech as he is in books. Asked how much the ‘reader matters’ when writing he replied ‘All writers want readers. Some writers say they don’t want readers. Some write as if they don’t’, an excellent tip for all who aspire to write for any audience.