In-ter-ess-teeng...

I was listening to - forgive me for this - ABC Radio National with mother the other day, and this guy came on. This poet guy. Obviously I got bored and wandered away. I wandered back again, though, in time to hear him reading this. I liked it, and found it amusing, and so thought I'd share.Go buy his book, if you want to support him. I'm not sure where you'd get it, but I think it's called 'The Shout'. Lewks cewl. The guy's entertaining.
Enjoy.


You're Beautiful - Simon Armitage

You're Beautiful
because you're classically trained.
I'm ugly because I associate piano wire with strangulation.

You're beautiful because you stop to read the cards in newsagents' windows
about lost cats and missing dogs.
I'm ugly because of what 1 did to that jellyfish with a lolly-stick and a big stone

You're beautiful because for you, politeness is instinctive, not a marketing
campaign
I'm ugly because desperation is impossible to hide.

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.

You're beautiful because you believe in coincidence and the power of thought.
I'm ugly because I proved God to be a mathematical impossibility

You're beautiful because you prefer home-made soup to the packet stuff
I'm ugly because once, at a dinner party,
I defended the aristocrasy and wasn't even drunk.
You're beautiful because you can't work the remote control.
I'm ugly because of satellite television and twenty-four hour rolling news

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.

You're beautiful because you cry at weddings as well as funerals.
I'm ugly because I think of children as another species from a different world.

You're beautiful because you look great in any colour including red.
I'm ugly because I think shopping is strictly for the acquisition of material goods.

You're beautiful because when you were born, undiscovered planets
lined up to peep over the rim of your cradle and lay gifts of gravity and light at you miniature feet.
I'm ugly for saying 'love at first sight' is another form of mistaken identity
and that the most human of all responses is to gloat.

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.

You're beautiful because you've never seen the inside of a car wash,
I'm ugly because I always ask for a receipt.

You're beautiful for sending a box of shoes to the third world.
I'm ugly because I remember the telephone numbers of ex-girlfriends
and the year Schubert was born.

You're beautiful because you sponsored a parrot in a zoo.
I'm ugly because when I sigh it's like the slow collapse of a circus tent.

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.

You're beautiful because you can point at a man in a uniform and laugh.
I'm ugly because I was a police informer in a previous life.

You're beautiful because you drink a litre of water and eat three pieces of fruit a day.
I'm ugly for taking the line that a meal without meat is a beautiful woman with one eye.

You're beautiful because you don't see love as a competition and you know how to lose.
I'm ugly because I kissed the FA Cup then held it up to the crowd.

You're beautiful because of a single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your
cardigan.
I'm ugly because I said the World's Strongest Woman was a muscleman in a dress.

You're beautiful because you couldn't live in a lighthouse.

I'm ugly for making hand-shadows in front of the giant bulb, so when they
look up, the captains of vessels in distress see the ears of a rabbit, or the eye of a fox, or the legs of a galloping black horse.

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.

Ugly like he is,
Beautiful like hers,
Beautiful like Venus,
Ugly like his,
Beautiful like she is,
Ugly like Mars.