News of the New Poet Laureate - Simon Armitage

I had not heard of you before

Why should I have

Not exposed

To your work

Like the many who write

Well done on your news

As they recite and remember your work

And your influence on their lives

The Poem

I've just read this morning

So simply written, it disturbed me,

Then I read another and it bothered me too

You had the capacity to think

How you could scar for life

And I drew my breath when I read

How you played a trick and hurt

Someone so young to fall for your foolhardy joke in the

chemistry lab,

And you may come to ask how did I come to know,

Stuck to my radio, that's how,

I heard your name, Simon Armitage

When the announcement was made,

In the news, the new poet laureate was read,

The approval was made