Skendong Poetry
Clunky Narratives

Welcome to Skendong Poetry, an experimental poetry website and the original home of The Candid Verse. This archive explores Clunky Narratives — poems that show their seams on purpose, where the line doesn't quite scan and the register shifts mid-stanza because the subject won't sit still.

The philosophy behind the work

Clunky Narratives challenges the expectation that poetry must always be smooth, polished, or predictable. The writing uses friction, unusual structures, and unexpected shifts in voice — a register that can lurch from biblical prophecy to a bitcoin joke within a single stanza.

An unconventional approach to modern poetry

Most poetry sites play it safe with polished, predictable formats. This one doesn't. It is an assault on reigning rhetorical excesses — moralising, chaotic, and carving out room for genuine experimental expression.

Exploring the Clunky Narratives archive

A growing archive examining memory, identity, society, and the human condition. Ancoats corner shops and canal-side wine bars, a rogue AI escaping its sandbox, a headline from Gaza — tracing how overlooked moments and forgotten causes develop into unpredictable creative effects.

An ad-free space for literary exploration

No ads, no sponsors, no products. For poetry lovers, experimental writers, and readers chasing alternative literary forms — original writing since 2012, with a framework still evolving.