SIMON ARMITAGE has been the new UK POET LAUREATE since May 2019. He is a Dour Yorkshireman from Huddersfield. He has been a published streetwise Poet since 1989 (aged 26). He was elected Oxford Professor of Poetry in 2015 (aged 52). He is a Performance Poet and his Yorkshire accent gives his Recitals an extra edge !
Came we then to the place aforementioned,
crossed its bristled threshold through robotic glass doors,
entered its furry heat, Its flesh tinted fluorescent light.
Thus with wire-wrought baskets, we voyaged,
and some with trolleys back wheels flapping like trout tails,
cruised the narrow canyons twixt cascading shelves.
Legion were the items that came tamely to hand:
five stainless steel teaspoons, ten corn relief plasters,
the Busy Bear pedal bin liners fragranced with country lavender,
the Disney design calendar and diary set, three cans of Vimto,
cornucopia of potato-based snacks and balm for a sweet tooth,
toys and Games, goods of Orient made and of Cathay,
all under the clouded eye of CCTV.
Many uniformed servers, spectral, drifting between aisles.
Then came ELPENOR, our old friend ELPENOR,
slumped and shrunken by the Seasonal products display.
I strangled words I managed.
\"How art though come to these shady channels, into hell*s ravine ?\"
And he \"To loan sharks I owe the bone and marrow of my all.\"
Then Walt Whitman, enquiring politely of the delivery boy.
And from Special Occasions came forth TIRESLAS,
dead in life, alive in death, cider-scented and sock-less.
Oxfam-clad, shavng cuts on both cheeks, quoting the stock exchange.
But never until the valley widened at the gated brink
did we open our lips to fish out those gold covered coins,
those minted obols, hard-won tokens graced with our monarch*s head,
kept hidden beneath the tongues eel, blood tasting,
both ornament and safe guard, of armour made.
And paid forthwith, then broke surface
and breathed extraordinary daylight into starved lungs,
steered for home, through precincts and parks scalded by polar winds,
laden with whatnot, lightened of golden quids.
Thanks for visiting ~ comments welcome ~ Love Brian & Angela ๐งก๐ค๐๐ค๐งก
Acknowledgements to BRIAN ARMITAGE. Brian wrote this poem when he wa s teaching in Sheffield University. A student told Brian \"Ive just bought a copy of EZRA POUNDS CANTOS for POUND in POUNDLAND\". That moved his MUSE !
GLOSSARY:
POUNDLAND. An outlet store in which everything is sold for ONE POUND($ 1.33) or multiple of ONE POUND. 7 million punters in 2016 mainly female.
ELPENOR. Character from the Odyssy
TIRESLAS. Blind Prophet of Appolo
WALTER WHITMAN. Famous American Poet 1819 - 1892
OBOLS. Ancient Greek Coins
*ORNAMENT & SAFEGUARD* Translation of the inscription on the edge (rim) of the original ONE POUND COINS *DECUS ET TUTANEM*
QUID. UK slang for a POUND.