Blossomise

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage crafts luminous verses celebrating Spring's bloom, moving fluidly between poetic styles such as haikus and ballads, while weaving together images of budding trees and city environments. Bringing new perspectives and energy to a timeless poetic subject - the blooming of Spring.

Blossomise celebrates the ecstatic arrival of spring blossom just as it acknowledges, too, its melancholy disappearance. Full of spirited leaps of imagination and language, the twenty-one poems hopscotch between intense momentary haikus that honour the Japanese traditions of the blossom festival and stand-alone lyrical pieces that take in the stylistic tones of ballads, hymns, songs, prayers and nursery rhymes. From a crashed Ford Capri wrapped around the immovable trunk of a cherry tree, to saplings flourishing among skyscrapers and urban sprawl, the fizz and froth of the annual blossom display is explored here both as an exuberant emblem of the natural world and a nervous marker of our vulnerable climate.

Published in collaboration with the National Trust as part of their annual Blossom programme and campaign.

One of the country’s most recognisable poets Simon Armitage has carved out a niche for himself as a wry observer of popular culture and documenter of 21st century British society. Since his first collection Zoom! in 1989 his vibrant Northern vernacular and the informality of his subject matter have been mainstays of British poetry ever since.

Acclaimed fine art printmaker, illustrator and the author Angela Harding responds to the poems in wonderful accompanying illustrations.