John Wedgwood Clarke’s first full-length collection opens with the titular Ghost Pot: a lobster trap that, torn free from the fishermen who launched it, drifts along the sea-bed, continuing its business of catching lobsters until it is re-discovered, ‘crammed to the throat with bony shields’. Returning to the coastline so vividly captured in his pamphlet Sea Swim, these new poems thrillingly evoke the seafront vistas of North Yorkshire.
“Whether the subject is sea-life or shoreline or history, these beautifully crafted poems tease out the essential meaning in things and places.” – Bernard O’Donoghue
“An exhilarating sweep of elemental experience.” – Penelope Shuttle
John Wedgwood Clarke grew up in St Ives, Cornwall, and now lives in Scarborough. His poems have appeared in the Guardian (Poem of the Week, December 2012) and Poetry Review. In 2010 he was shortlisted for the Manchester Poetry Prize, and commended in the National Poetry Competition. His debut pamphlet, Sea Swim, was published by Valley Press in 2012. John is currently Leverhulme Artist in Residence at the Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences, part of the University of Hull’s Scarborough campus.