Has Anyone Seen My Wolf?
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Rachael Clyne is a retired psychotherapist. Her first collection Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams) concerns eco-issues. Her latest collection, ‘You’ll Never Anyone Else’, (Seren Books) explores themes of identity and otherness including, migrant heritage, LGBTQ and relationships. @rachaelclyne.bsky.social rachaelclyne.substack.com
Our featured publication for May and June is You’ll Never Be Anyone Else by Rachael Clyne, published by Seren.
You’ll Never Be Anyone Else offers a unique story of survival and empowerment told in spite of experiences of violence and prejudice – this from a poet who has spent a lifetime learning self-acceptance and as a psychotherapist helping others to do similar. Treating even dark subjects with playful wit and colourful imagery, Clyne is a distinctive new voice with a powerful message about self-acceptance.
‘Rich, cinematic and sensuous‘ Joelle Taylor
‘Take a front row seat in Clyne’s very particular theatre of life; witness the tale of a woman’s self-discovery and self-acceptance in a world where the odds are stacked against her. Meditations on history, culture, identity and mortality offer up a simultaneously witty, discomforting and uplifting read.’ Jacqueline Saphra
‘This is a touching and potent body of work where we see a girl grow into a woman through a series of masked and costumed performances, before finally having the courage to be herself.‘ Helen Ivory
‘These poems embrace the risky, sensuous and camp, holding up a bulb-lined mirror to the scripts the world tries to impose. Clyne’s work traces the prickle of overt and covert discrimination, whilst celebrating the self-liberation performance can offer, both on and beyond the page.‘ Caleb Parkin
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Girl Golem
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Previously published in Tears in the Fence
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You’ll never be anyone else
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Previously published in Obsessed With Pipework
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A Man Threw Knives at Me
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Previously published in London Grip
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Rachael Clyne from Glastonbury, is published in journals including: Atrium, Iamb, Ink Sweat & Tears, Lighthouse , Rialto, Shearsman and Tears in the Fence. Recent anthologies: #Metoo, Out on the Page, Rebeltalk. Rachael has been a professional actor and a psychotherapist. Her passions are eco-issues and identity. Her prizewinning collection, Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams), concerns our broken connection with nature. Her pamphlet, Girl Golem (4word.org) explores her Jewish migrant heritage and sense of otherness. Facebook: Rachael Clyne or Twitter: @RachaelClyne1 Blog: https://rachaelclyne.blogspot.com/
Copies of You’ll Never Be Anyone Else are available to purchase from the Seren website.
Those tiny single shoes
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Rachael Clyne is from Glastonbury: her collection Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams) concerns eco-issues, her pamphlet, Girl Golem (4Word Press) explores her Jewish, migrant background. Her new collection, You’ll Never Be Anyone Else, will be published by Seren in 2023. It expands on themes of identitiy, including sexual orientation.
Dank
One word can hold
everything you need to know
about the stare of sheep
from sodden fields
about the cronk
of raven through fog
a dog straining its leash
the mud-brown coat
of its owner
about luminous moss
down the middle of a lane
the sepia mash of leaf
that plasters its edges
about bleached sedge
that echoes with
toot of coot
chitter of wren
a dead branch
that arches and dips
into a ditch
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Rachael Clyne’s collection, Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams), concerns our relationship with nature. Her pamphlet, Girl Golem (www.4word.org) explores her migrant heritage and sense of otherness. She is currently expanding this work into a collection.
Be Mindful of Mud
Step warily my dear,
on slippery earth-paths
that thread uphill
past ivied trunks
away from a world
of dull-crack gunshot
and quadbike roar.
Lift your head instead
to light that catches
silver on hazel bark.
If, my dear,
you find yourself
wire-barred –
backtrack down,
bottom-slide, clutch
each handhold branch
offered by
soft-eyed strangers.
Learn, my friend,
to avoid the glisten
of sticky opinion.
If its mire sucks you in,
wave your wing tips
and let the pull of air-tides
uplift you all the way
to the hillfort crown.
Rest there, my love,
on an old horse-trough.
Gaze at dainty deer track
by your feet, scrutinise
badger sgraffito.
Listen to rook chatter
and feel your body fizz.
Now you are human-imal,
mudful of mind.
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Rachael Clyne’s collection, Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams), concerns our relationship with nature. Her pamphlet, Girl Golem (www.4word.org) explores her migrant heritage and sense of otherness. She is currently expanding this work into a collection.
The Wait
The image of a bleach bottle
at her lips, lingers in the room.
Its walls echo with car-crash sounds.
I feel the draw of a noose, her urge to jump.
Each week, she pleads to stay.
With fixed eyes, she forces me
to deny her, make her leave.
I cling to my professional chair.
She’s already had her week’s ration,
so pills are off the menu. I wonder
if she’ll be here next week, she asks
for a method that is certain. I am silent.
The crisis team can’t do home visits,
they too are in a critical state.
An overdose merits a day in A&E
then a cab, or a twenty-mile walk home.
Her GP has become a placebo
‘somehow they muddle through’,
he says. I know he cares, but like me,
must wait for her storm to break.
Rachael Clyne is widely published in journals. Her recent pamphlet, Girl Golem (4Word press.org) is about her migrant origins and sense of otherness. She is involved in climate activism and hopes the lockdown has changed our ways.
atriumpoetry.com 