Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has written a poem for a pill in the fight against cancer.

The 51-word verse has been been micro-engraved on a replica tablet just 20mm (0.8in) wide.

The Huddersfield poet wrote the work to symbolically show the precise science being brought to bear in the fight against cancer.

The words of the poem, which was commissioned by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), were expertly etched on to the tiny replica pill by artist Graham Short.


"And, like science, poetry is a 'what if' activity, imagining outcomes and possibilities-based creative thinking.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage holding a 20mm long and 10mm wide replica anti-cancer pill on which is written a poem engraved specialist artist Graham Short about cancer research

"I liked the sense that poem and pill might collaborate to produce both a medical and emotional cure, and that something so minimalist could aim to bring down something so enormous and destructive."

The poem, titled Finishing It, reads: "I can't configure/a tablet/chiselled by God's finger/or forge/a scrawled prescription,/but here's an inscription, formed/on the small white dot/of its own/full stop,/the sugared pill/of a poem, one sentence/that speaks ill/of illness itself, bullet/with cancer's name/carved brazenly on it."

The finished work will be displayed permanently at the Centre For Cancer Drug Discovery, aimed at researching drugs to effectively battle the disease, when it opens next year.

Specialist artist Graham Short holding a 20mm long and 10mm wide replica anti-cancer pill on which he engraved a poem written by Poet Laureate Simon Armitage about cancer research

Professor Paul Workman, of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "Simon Armitage's poem engraved on a pill perfectly conveys the exquisite precision of the work the ICR's scientists will be conducting in our new Centre For Cancer Drug Discovery.

"Our researchers are focusing on understanding, predicting and blocking the evolution of cancer, aiming to stay one step ahead of the disease using precision medicine and drug combinations, so that we can achieve long-term survival and cure."

The ICR is seeking to raise £14 million to complete the centre where the poetic pill will be housed.

The Centre For Cancer Drug Discovery will focus on tackling adaptive resistance to anti-cancer medication.