Perhaps the spirituality is more a rejection of materialism. While the poem thrives on stories and images from the media, Armitage can be scathing about his subject. My gut feeling is that news is just as much about what we don't know is going on, what doesn't find its way into our living room. We use the news as a barometer of the world, and it tells how we're meant to feel that day. But there are issues of selection, presentation, authorial judgment.
News is business, and it ends as entertainment.
Sometimes I find that stomach-churning. What Armitage does is to transform those familiar stories and images. One of the most striking sections deals with the Colorado high school shootings, substituting flowers for bullets. Armitage's partner has just given birth to their daughter. Simon Armitage has done his bit for this millennium, and is looking forward to the next.