Blossomise

Have obviously had a little bit of a 'Simon Armitage theme ' going on, over recent weeks ...

... and so; here's a poem from his just published  volume on Blossom:


Blossom: a CV

Blossom was a pavement artist.
    Painted the trees
in concrete estates and sad precincts.
    Painted the streets.

Blossom was a fruit farmer.
    Lived on the land.
Raised and nurtured saplings
    with an invisible hand.

Think of Blossom as solar panels.
    When the weather turned
and the seasons unravelled
    Blossom was the weathervane.

Blossom was a mountaineer.
    Didn't look down. Weighted anchor
in hairline fissures
    and stress fractures.

Blossom the magician transformed
    winter's curfew hours
into foaming white petals.
    Abracadabra: flowers.

Rootless and homeless, Blossom
    rode and drifted
on thermal currents
    as the climate shifted.

Blossom the ballet dancer
    was reborn
in the hardcore techno and thrash-metal
    of the thunderstorm.

As a sculptor, Blossom
    trained and wrangled
reluctant limbs in the studio
    of the walled garden.

Blossom was a dictionary.
    Knew how to spell resurrection
and the true meaning
    of revelation.

---

Simon Armitage (1963 - )

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