Boy Thing

“Boy Thing is a thing of wonder. These are poems
that negotiate anew the tender, hurt territory
of a boy abruptly unfathered with every fresh
reading; and that travel into the wonderment of
becoming a father of boys. We are given a
boy’s-eye-view of 1970s Cornwall with a
music and detail so meticulous that we yearn with
Clarke for its lost territories. But these are not just
poems of archive or archaeology;
they are revelatory, dynamic and raw.
Clarke is crucially attuned to the secret
messages received in boyhood – its
preoccupations and awakenings, epiphanies
and abuses, and its shames. This book is
unmissable: human and humane,
grimy and sublime.”
- Fiona Benson

“Boy Thing is a beautiful book – sensual,
atmospheric, full of nature and ritual. These poems
while formally precise, possess a rawness that is
startling and utterly compelling.”
- Ella Frears