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, metamorphosing as they go: lines refuse to settle, the rhythm deliberately falters, and the register shifts because the subject itself won’t stay 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 internet satire within a single stanza.
An unconventional approach to modern poetry
Many poetry websites favour polished, consistent forms. Skendong is not that. 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
For poetry lovers, experimental writers, and readers drawn to alternative literary forms — original writing since 2012 in an ad-free space with no sponsors or products. Built around the Clunky Narratives framework, which continues to shift and evolve.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.