Clay by Joi W

This poetry collection used the metaphor of clay in relation to growing through life and how from the start of life we learn about love from how we're received, held and treated and how through life the pattern of care or lack of echoes. Alike the clay metaphor, the book discusses how from you can go from being soft to hardening, how you get treated becomes nature and sets your expectations in life for how you expect to be treated by anyone and everyone in the future but also being conscious of what you wish to find. The book talks of how the language of touch is not just natural in a relationship but something sacred and translatable between two people so deeply connected and how the feeling from the discussion of touch, the textures of feelings metaphorical and literal and the way clay alike human bodies is shaped by experience whether we want it to be or not, like clay can fold or remain. I honestly cannot pick just a few poems that stood out when reading this collection through because the flow was not only spectacular, it was also readable in a sequence that led fluidly from one to the next and each poem was expertly crafted but I will say the ending poems on self love and reflection of after relationships change you was poignant to finish on.