Lockdown: Simon Armitage writes poem about coronavirus outbreak
(The Guardian Books News)

Poet laureate says society may emerge from the pandemic `slightly slower, and wiser, at the other end´Simon Armitage has written a poem to address the coronavirus and a lockdown that is slowly being implemented across the UK, saying that the art form can be consoling in times of crisis because it `asks us just to focus, and think, and be contemplative`.The poet laureate´s new poem, Lockdown, moves from the outbreak of bubonic plague in Eyam in the 17th century, when a bale of cloth from London brought fleas carrying the plague to the Derbyshire village, to the epic poem Meghaduta by the Sanskrit poet Kalidasa. Continue reading...