Home Poetry The Sweep, by Harry Clifton

The Sweep, by Harry Clifton

Gone Self Storm|Harry Clifton|Bloodaxe Books

Launches Wednesday 5th April at 6pm in Hodges Figgis


The Sweep

Everything was thirty years ago

Including the last time the chimneysweep

Put in an appearance. Birds have built

In the choked windpipe

Of the lumb. The coke-fumes

In the bedroom, smokeless guilt

Invisible as eye-motes, slowly make themselves felt.

Spread the dust-sheet now, on thirty years,

And start the vacuum up.

Stand back, while the nests of blood

Aborted, and the unborn generations

Disappear into the sack

Of darkness with a sigh

And the hearth is cold, and you can see the sky.

Harry Clifton

Gone Self Storm (Bloodaxe Books, 2023)


Harry Clifton will be reading from Gone Self Storm Wednesday 5 April at Hodges Figgis, introduced by Benjamin Keatinge. Presented in association with Trinity College Dublin. Full details here.