The Friday Poem

A poem every Friday

Clare Best

Painting in bright colours showing a copse of trees.

The forest’s edge

Charlotte Gann reviews Beyond the Gate by Clare Best (Worple Press, 2023)
A man and a woman in period costume from around the 1600s by the look of the wig. They are standing either side of a chemists wooden counter and red smoke billows in the air

Collaboration and Transformation II

Clare Best on collaborating with composers and musicians, translators and book designers


Photo credit: Guildhall School of Music & Drama
a black and white portrait of Clare, she is turned from the camera, scar tissue is visible were her breasts were

Collaboration and Transformation I

Clare Best on her experiences of collaborative artistic work



Photo by Laura Stevens
Collage style illustration off a man made up oaf various images including flowers and butterflies, the predominant colour is red, and he is on a black background which has a number of butterflies and a Passion flower

This is the naming of trees / this is a series of flames / this is watching you all disappear

Clare Best reviews All the Men I Never Married by Kim Moore (Seren, 2021)
Book cover of 'Time' by Etel Adnan

Today I see eternity everywhere

Clare Best reviews Time by Etel Adnan, translated from the French by Sarah Riggs (Nightboat Books, New York, 2019)
beyond the gate

beyond the gate

by Clare Best — scots pine and resin-scented air / out here / giant oak left of the path / we are walking // sycamore in sun in shade / holly crowding ragged elder // sweet chestnut spruce fir douglas fir