British Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has translated medieval poems like Pearl and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. He’s tackled The Odyssey. He’s written plays, like about the last days of Troy. He’s written novels and published numerous poetry collections. He’s retold the death of King Arthur and published two poetry travel books.
And, perhaps most surprisingly, this most literate of literary writers has also performed in two bands and written the lyrics for a considerable number of songs.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Poet Malcom Guite (another Brit) found time from his day job as Cambridge University college chaplain to perform in a band (he retired from the day job but still performs in gigs). And in 2016, American Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The literary times they are a changin’.
In his new publication Never Good with Horses: Assembled Lyrics, Armitage says right up front that “song lyrics are not poems and poems are not song lyrics.” The primary reason is that song lyrics come packaged with the significant element of music, which can change everything about the words.
To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.
Some Tuesday Readings
Many do – poem and artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.
The Babylon Bee Founder Leaves the Company Due to ‘Burnout’ – Liz Lykins at The Roys Report.
Childhood Stories #1 – poem by Paul Wittenberger at Paul’s Substack.
On Writing Oklahoma City – Rod Roensch at Front Porch Republic.
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