2 poems by Geraldine Clarkson

Madeleine

So I touched her

left breast offering my

right, and she gave out her

low crooning, not pain,

not pleasure, but like

she’d remembered something

in a dramatic, piercing way.

This happened long ago.

This happened long ago,

in a dramatic piercing way.

She’d remembered something,

not pleasure, but like

low crooning—not pain,

right, and she gave out her

left breast… offering. (My!)

So I touched her.

Cling: Film

He encouraged me to cling to him, he liked to have me cling. Then, when we climbed

above a boiling ocean, at a tall crag arching like a ballerina over the blue, he let me

fall.

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Geraldine Clarkson is a poet from the West of Ireland. The former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Carol Ann Dufffy, described her poetry as " musical, often playful incantations that delight in the power of words". Her most recent publication is The Vitalist Sees the Signs (Broken Sleep Books, 2025). In her spare time she is a volunteer at a local duck pond.