This was a pleasant surprise. I only became aware of Clare through Iain Sinclair. Discovering that Clare was a naturalist gave me a certain pause. Then Tuesday saw me heading to a somewhat irrelevant workshop just outside of Indianapolis and I tossed it into my bag. Winter still has a hold on that area and the location of my meeting was adjacent to a lake. How fitting then the rolling descriptions of birds and plants, even there under the brittle grip of a February frost. I have come to realize how Wendell Berry while embodying so many of my values and aspirations is still a very average poet. Clare is likewise remarkable; his descriptions of country folk at the holidays are amazing, human and touching.

Perhaps not the right book I've read as the one I read on my book app is just titled "Clare's poems".
I was going through a real though reading time today, after trying to change my reading habits and speed and I just got to a point where I struggled a lot with reading. I was in terrible mood but then I saw a wonderful review on my feed about John Clare's works and I decided to give him a try. But I never usually read poems. But to my delight I was mesmerized by his poems, they where so lyrical and such a great read. It really bring my mood up. Sadly there was only that one work on the app and I have to look elsewhere