beautiful changelings

I showed my mum the poem ‘i want to grow old’ from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s new collection beautiful changelings, a poem not simply on aging but also a manifesto on how to grow old, lovingly, joyously and purposefully. I showed my mum, and I was surprised to see, after making her a cup of tea, that she was still reading, having gone on to the next poem. Her eyes had lit up. The power in Beneba Clarke’s poetry is how it resonates with people, even self-described not-poetry-people like my mum. It grips you and you keep going and going and going.

Beneba Clarke has also written across genre and for all ages. Her work with children’s picture books and children’s poetry is incredibly accomplished and she has written memoir as well as fiction. But her poetry, in particular, demonstrates a love and attention to language, not just as it is written but also as something spoken, full of the rhythms, stresses and pauses of speech. Beneba Clarke doesn’t seem to set out to break apart language, rather to bring it together in new and interesting ways. beautiful changelings is a tour de force of her writing, each poem purposeful and charged, speaking to the experiences of being a woman, a mother, of aging, of racism and of feminism.

The collection is assembled in eight main sections. ‘the sirens’ retells fairytales, but from the perspective of the people overlooked, such as in ‘spindle’, one of my favourites, which sheds a different light on Sleeping Beauty, tracing the logics of class, race and power. And then there’s ‘women’s work’, which calls on women’s overlooked and undervalued role in getting the world through the recent pandemic. There’s also ‘major complications’, an incredible section, which speaks to race and White feminism’s failure to champion Black women. These feel like poems to be spoken out loud; to be felt in your bones. I can’t wait to share this collection with as many people as I can.