Write Out Loud (Reviews and Writing)

Having reviewed Armitage’s latest book a few months ago and not finding it quite as good as some of the selected poems I’ve read over the years, I decided to see if I could rekindle my love for this poet by reading his collection of – presumably – his best works.

I wasn’t disappointed. I guess the nature of writing very short form pieces is that you write a lot of them over a period of several decades and not all can be the same quality. A recent collection will have hits and also probably a fair amount of misses. But a collected works clears away the chaff and leaves all the best – at least in theory. On the whole, Armitage has done exactly that.

It is telling that certain books – such as Xanadu, Killing Time and Mister Heracles – only get to have one or two poems making the cut of this volume. I don’t why more weren’t considered but I’d hazard a guess the poet or his editor didn’t like them so much. The Universal Home Doctor, by contrast, has ten poems included. It must have been a good one.

Technically, this is a collection of ‘selected poems’ rather than a ‘greatest hits’, so we can’t say that Armitage has made his selections according to what he thinks are the best. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to infer he thinks these poems are pretty damned hot, even if merely based on his personal favourites. It would be weird to have so famous and loved a poet who is rubbish at working out which are his best.

That said, I must dock him a star – out of spite – for completely missing one of his very best and most provocative of poems: Remains. Much loved and oft studied because of its inclusion in the AQA GCSE poetry anthology, it is the perfect gateway poem for giving young minds a love for this kind of writing. After all, short form poetry is the TikTok of the literary world. It is a puzzle, a game, to work out the meaning; and it is super short so it never gets boring. Perfect for our current generation used to fast information available in their pockets at all times. How could Armitage miss this poem?!

In fairness, it isn’t a perfect book. There’s still some poems here that I simply don’t find engaging. Even in a collected works, it is still possible to have some misses. Some of this will probably just be that a particular poem ‘isn’t for me’, while someone else will think it sublime. But some are just duds, I suspect. Not many though; on the whole, this is a wonderful collection. There’s an eclectic mix between forms, styles and levels of seriousness.

I particularly like the selections that Armitage calls ‘prose poems’; more usually they would be thought of as flash fiction. I guess the label of ‘poem’ comes more from the feel of these as there’s a mysterious, ethereal quality to all of them; like something you have to figure out for yourself. But I also enjoy the quirky, silly ones like ‘To-Do List’. Even here, there’s things to mull over. The final word hits you hard and leaves you not so much with the smile you did just have on your face, but a thoughtful reflectiveness instead. It’s rather effective.

So then, overall, this is a great collection of poems from an excellent poet, one who well deserves his reputation. They are very British, very down to earth and dealing with themes that affect us all. There’s no lofty thoughts here, just quiet reflections on life. Armitage challenges us to embrace ourselves and accept us as frail and human. He comforts us by acknowledging that he’s exactly that too. You aren’t intimidated by these poems. They’re messages from a friend you don’t know yet. I wouldn’t want my poetry to be any other way.

My Verdict:

Social Entrepreneur, educationalist, bestselling author and journalist, D K Powell is the author of the bestselling collection of literary short stories “The Old Man on the Beach“. His first book, ‘Sonali’ is a photo-memoir journal of life in Bangladesh and has been highly praised by the Bangladeshi diaspora worldwide. Students learning the Bengali language have also valued the English/Bengali translations on every page. His third book is ‘Try not to Laugh’ and is a guide to memorising, revising and passing exams for students.

Both ‘The Old Man on the Beach’ and ‘Sonali’ are available on Amazon for kindle and paperback. Published by Shopno Sriti Media. The novel,’The Pukur’, was published by Histria Books in 2022.

D K Powell is available to speak at events (see his TEDx talk here) and can be contacted at dkpowell.contact@gmail.com. Alternatively, he is available for one-to-one mentoring and runs a course on the psychology of writing. Listen to his life story in interview with the BBC here.

Ken writes for a number of publications around the world. Past reviewer for Paste magazine, The Doughnut, E2D and United Airways and Lancashire Life magazine. Currently reviews for Northern Arts Review. His reviews have been read more than 7.9 million times.

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