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Synopsis
Debut collection from a poet captivated by the patterns and patterning of science. Informed by her previous career as a Biology teacher, Helen Clare's writing delights in the whorls and sprung-coils of our physical lives. Whether tackling families, frustration or sexuality, the poems in Mollusc enact a remarkable balancing act between intimate personal truths and precise, undeniable, scientific ones. 'A new seam opening up in British poetry, every rift loaded with ore.' Hugo Williams. Helen's first work was featured in Faber's First Pressings anthology in 1998, which heralded a new generation of British poets. Her poems have since won a number of national prizes.
Hanging around the neck of poetry is the truism that few people read poetry and fewer buy it; it is a moribund art form. Occasionally though, a book appears to prove that reports of the death of poetry are greatly exaggerated. Helen Clare's Mollusc (Comma Press) does just that. Raw and earthy, comic and desperately tragic, it is a blast of cold air over exposed nerves: '... for the umpteenth time you joke about the way my tits float in the bath'. Read poetry. Read this book. Be prepared for a laugh. But be prepared to cry.
John Clarke
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