You’re beautiful

[binahboy.livejournal.com]

Bit like pop lyrics , but comes in handy during early days of courting. ;)

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 I 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 homemade soup to the packet stuff.
I’m ugly because once, at a dinner party,
I defended the aristocracy 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 your miniature feet.


I’m ugly for saying “love at first sight” is another form of mistaken identity,
and that the most human of all the 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 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 my 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 a 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 am ugly because I was a police informer in my own 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 and the held it up to the crowd.

You’re beautiful because of the single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan
I’m ugly because I said the world’s strongest woman is a muscle man 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 rabbit, eye of a fox and 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.

~Simon Armitage

Comments

[ladyjeanetta.livejournal.com]

Really interesting poem... I'm not sure I liked the "chorus" but this bit was just lovely:

"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 your miniature feet."

Thanks for sharing!

[unearthingbone.livejournal.com]

Sigh, I really wanted to like this poem because it's Simon Armitage and I loved "The Shout" amongst other bits and pieces of his work -- but he appears to have lost his mind here, or to have been overtaken by 'NSYNC while he was writing this. There are beautiful lines in here, like "You’re beautiful because of the single buttercup in the top buttonhole of your cardigan," and this part:


You’re beautiful because you’ve never seen 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 my ex-girlfriends
and the year Schubert was born

but by and large, I'm sadly not sold. The chorus is too icky to even really comment on -- it reminds me of a chant the witches in Macbeth should be saying around their cauldron -- and I don't really buy the concepts of what is ugly versus what is beautiful here because there's no consistent theme to them. Sometimes, the "ugly" example is decidedly more beautiful than the "beautiful" example (which I suppose is Armitage making a social comment), but there's no rhyme or reason to it so it doesn't work for me.

[kleios-kiss.livejournal.com]

From a feminist perspective, I highly dislike it.

"OMGzzz women are liiike, so delicate, childish, pretty, innocent, fragile and kind and I'm a big clumsy mean logical man! I'm going to go worship the pretty little thing now, and bemoan my mathematical man-mind."

[aria-muse.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see this peformed.

[postscrypt.livejournal.com]

it reminded me of this quote (http://community.livejournal.com/literaryquotes/3619981.html) quite a bit.

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

I really hope he was joking, because if he wasn't he's just been booted off my favourite poets list.

[pachamama.livejournal.com]

Interesting -- I had never read this on the page before, but heard Simon perform it last year. Performed, it is a much stronger poem than on the page, and the "chorus" actually works. On the page it seems much weaker.

To the lighthouse ladies,

[binahboy.livejournal.com]

Wow...I have about seven lighthouses I am willing to rent.

[haitianheromg.livejournal.com]

I like the general theme. Not a fan of the chorus neither. But there were some interesting stanzas. Definitely didn't sell the poem to me all the way through, unfortunatley.