A Cliff Yates Collected? Yes please

I am semi-disconnected from the poetry world these days, but I'm in touch enough to hear that Cliff Yates has got a Collected coming out, which is excellent news. I was privileged enough to, with Cliff, be a member of the Edge Hill Poetry and Poetics Research group back in the noughties, and quickly became a fan of his style. Never showy, but always insightful, with a deep-rooted humanity. I always enjoyed how Cliff's work could move surely from domestic to absurd to beautiful, often in the course of a single line.

So I shall, of course, be getting a copy. And I shall, because I am a monstrous egotist, be wondering why I don't have a lovely artefact with my name on it, and because it's a Sunday morning, and I haven't out anything up on here for a while, I wrote something about it..

Discovering Cliff Yates has a Collected Poems out

A bit of news I said

Cliff's got a Collected Poems coming out

I wasn't sure she cared, but carried on anyway

I'd nothing else important to say that morning

but do love the sound of my own voice

Why haven't I got a Collected Poems out? I asked

She looked up briefly from her Duolingo

It's because you never write any poems, she said

I mean, look at this, you're trying

to write one now and this

is the first line break you've attempted and

to be frank

I don't think you've pulled it off

I'm getting back into it, I said

I  think, anyway, it's like

riding a bike - there

that one was better

Barely, she said but yes

It's an improvement

I'll give you that

But before you get

ahead of yourself

it's your turn to clean the bathroom