New Simon Armitage poem on our times

The current poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has recently published a striking, original poem on our unstable disturbing times, whose final vision is perhaps what he himself calls 'hope'. It is an imaginative response to the COP-26 climate summit taking place in Glasgow. I particularly like the powerful line, 'It's T minus zero/of the Petroleum Era' (T minus... is a term used for the countdown prior to a rocket launch). The short lines create a sense of impending doom, or perhaps of a world teetering on the brink of a new dawn, the central ambiguity of this poem. Here is his introductory piece, followed by the poem, published on the Guardian website today:

I wanted to react to COP-26  – so many of my friends and colleagues have been emboldened by the conversation it has generated. And strange times sometimes lead to strange poems.

I was trying to chart the peculiar dream-like state we seem to be in, where the rules and natural laws of the old world feel to be in flux, one of those dreams which are full of danger, but not completely beyond the control of the person who sleeps.

The speaker in the poem is watching a world out of kilter, and is full of doubt and distrust, but seems to pluck up enough personal courage to face the future. Let’s call it hope.

 

Futurama

I crawl out onto the rooftop

above the world’s junkshop,

lean against the warm chimney

and eyeball the city.

The vibe is … let’s say ethereal,

rows of TV aerials

spelling out HEAVEN,

spelling out ARMAGEDDON.

It’s T minus zero

of the Petroleum Era –

all my neighbours

are burning tomorrow’s newspapers

in their back-gardens,

getting their alibis sharpened.

As the hours evaporate

I say to my spirit

I can’t really pilot

this smouldering twilight

over the scars and crevasses,

but I’ll put on my best sunglasses

and steer the cockpit of morning

into the oncoming.