I am Very Bothered -- Simon Armitage

Guest poem sent in by Nandini K. Moorthy

(Poem #1310) I am Very Bothered I am very bothered when I think of the bad things I have done in my life. Not least that time in the chemistry lab when I held a pair of scissors by the blades and played the handles in the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner; then called your name, and handed them over. O the unrivalled stench of branded skin as you slipped your thumb and middle finger in, then couldn't shake off the two burning rings. Marked, the doctor said, for eternity. Don't believe me, please, if I say that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen, of asking you if you would marry me. -- Simon Armitage

I stumbled upon this poem by chance and it sure proved delightful reading (Not
to mention the gush of sweet nostalgia that comes associated with school days).

The innocence of the 13 year old rips through the poem masking the damage
caused by his foolish teenage prank.  Neither the title nor the first two lines
of the opening stanza least prepare the reader for the anecdote the poet
delivers.

What I thought was amazing about the poem, was poets ability to squeeze the
anecdote in fourteen lines (typical of love sonnets), with explicit explanation
of the incident, uncompromising on the humor and at the end, the shameful
acceptance of the act.  I assume the poets reference to the "burning rings" and
"marked for eternity" is part of marriage proposal that he discloses.   The
tinge of shame is also evident in the last stanza

Simon Armitage is a British poet and this poem is from his collection "Book of
Matches" based on his school memories.

[Martin adds]

owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That did nasty things to my imagination. *shudder*

I Say I Say I Say -- Simon Armitage

Guest poem submitted by Victoria Paterson:

(Poem #596) I Say I Say I Say Anyone here had a go at themselves for a laugh? Anyone opened their wrists with a blade in the bath? Those in the dark at the back, listen hard. Those at the front in the know, those of us who have, hands up, let's show that inch of lacerated skin between the forearm and the fist. Let's tell it like it is: strong drink, a crimson tidemark round the tub, a yard of lint, white towels washed a dozen times, still pink. Tough luck. A passion then for watches, bangles, cuffs. A likely story: you were lashed by brambles picking berries from the woods. Come clean, come good, repeat with me the punch line 'Just like blood' when those at the back rush forward to say how a little love goes a long long long way. -- Simon Armitage

Simon Armitage is a British poet, aged in (I think) either late twenties or
very early thirties. He has published several collections of poetry, and two
novels (one with another poet called Glyn Maxwell). I suppose, critically
speaking, this isn't his best poem , but it's one of my favorite poems. I
don't know if Armitage has ever attempted suicide, but to me, someone who
has, this poem speaks volumes. I don't know if there's a lot to say about it
- it speaks for itself, I think.

Victoria.

[thomas adds]

A poem that's more than a little reminiscent of Sylvia Plath - witness these
lines in Lady Lazarus: "Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it
exceptionally well. ".

[Britannica on confessional literature]

Confession: in literature, an autobiography, either real or fictitious, in
which intimate and hidden details of the subject's life are revealed. The
first outstanding example of the genre was the Confessions of St. Augustine
(c. AD 400), a painstaking examination of Augustine's progress from juvenile
sinfulness and youthful debauchery to conversion to Christianity and the
triumph of the spirit over the flesh. Others include the Confessions of an
English Opium-Eater (1822), by Thomas De Quincey, focusing on the writer's
early life and his gradual addiction to drug taking, and Confessions
(1782-89), the intimate autobiography of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. André Gide
used the form to great effect in such works as Si le grain ne meurt (1920
and 1924; If It Die...), an account of his life from birth to marriage.

Such 20th-century poets as John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, and
Anne Sexton wrote poetry in the confessional vein, revealing intensely
personal, often painful perceptions and feelings.

        -- EB