WHAT: new poems from the Poet Laureate of Punk

by John Cooper Clarke

Dr John Cooper Clarke's dazzling, scabrous voice has reverberated through pop culture for decades, his influence on generations of performance poets and musicians plain for all to see. In WHAT, the original 'People's Poet' comes storming out of the gate with an uproarious new collection, reminding us why he is one of Britain's most beloved writers and performers. James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Jesus nobody is safe from the punk rocker's acerbic pen – and that's just the first poem.

Hot on the heels of The Luckiest Guy Alive and his sprawling, encyclopaediac memoir I Wanna Be Yours, the good Doctor returns with his most trenchant collection of poems yet. Vivid and alive, with a sensitivity only a writer with a life as varied and extraordinary as Cooper Clarke's could summon, WHAT is an exceptional collection from one of our foremost satirists.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

Published April 29, 2025

About the author

John Cooper Clarke (born 25 January 1949) is an English performance poet who first became famous during the punk rock era of the late 1970s when he became known as a "punk poet". He released several albums in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and continues to perform regularly.

Reviews

[Raven Black · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read via an online reader copy

I did not finish this book, but was about half way before I stopped. The poems have the elements I like (flowing text that makes sense without sounding artsy, understandable themes, images are formed in your mind) and even the rhyming aspects are pleasant and not overly "cheesy." However, there is a maturity that doesn't "fit" with my personal tastes, but there is good potential. Some pop culture references that might be "dated" or unknown to a modern reader, but there are some relatively recent references. Has language and adult situations..

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

New poems by the Poet Laureate of Punk. Trying reading it in any other voice than John Cooper Clarke's.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clarke is generally referred to as a "punk poet," and I can definitely see some punk ethos here, especially with his irreverence and satirical view of society and social mores. But generally speaking, I'd say his work reads more like the Beats or with a kind of blues poetry influence. Not that these are bad things necessarily. Though I do feel like the desire to rhyme words sometimes takes precedence over actually trying to convey a meaning--some of the language feels random, with the only object being for the rhymes to work.
https://youtu.be/jk5PxknhkdI