I don’t think it would be inaccurate to say that I haven’t quite made up my mind about Simon Armitage. Clearly his 1992 collection Kid isn’t entirely representative of what he’s writing now, so perhaps it is better to see it as a way-marker on his journey – it was thirty years ago after all!
The poems seem to conform to a style of sorts, most obvious in the ‘big finish’ at the end of the majority of the pieces; yet there is another common thread too (for me at least), and that is I’ve no idea what’s going on in a fair number of them. It’s as if his subject is one or two steps removed from the poems, and without knowledge of what sits between the words and the ‘event’, without ‘the key’, you’re struggling.
Not that I would argue that everything should be spelled out. Far from it.
I saw Armitage live in 2020. That was a mixed experience too. And re-reading my review of Paper Aeroplane I discover it is similar to this one. Yet I don’t think he’s a marmite kind of poet – though I do know people for whom he can do no wrong – and his podcast, The Poet Laureate has gone to his Shed, is often a delight. For me? Well, I’ll settle on the fence just a little longer…
Ian Gouge - Writer 