Troubadour

… Simon Armitage: 'If everyone was writing poetry, I don't think I would be' - Features - Books - The Independent. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)

He set out (in July 2010) deliberately penniless. After an appeal for gigs and hosts on his website, he managed to earn his keep as a footsore, mist-drenched and wind-blown troubadour by reading at prearranged locations along the way and asking his listeners to bung cash – if they wished - into an increasingly whiffy walking sock. Let's cut to the chase: earnings £3086.42; expenses £1174.81; net profit £1911.61. Poetry pays!