Domestic Calicos

by Clay Hunt

Clay Hunt’s first full-length collection of poetry.

Praise for Domestic Calicos:

“Clay Hunt’s Domestic Calicos is a collection of poetry addressing loss, generational addiction, and familial complexities.
Through the author’s utmost vulnerability and use of vivid detail and image, he retells stories of trauma and resilience. This poetry collection honors (and is for) the survivor in each of us.”

— Briana Muñoz, Author of Everything is Returned to the Soil (FlowerSong Press 2021)

“The distanced, matter-of-fact poetic voice
speaking through the poems in Clay Hunt’s
Domestic Calicos is the lifeline, the thread, the
container holding together this astonishing
collection of poems of family catastrophe
and human devastation. In this book, the
poetic speaker “howl[s] at the moon,” wishing
he could feel his mother’s love, “or even
remember to notice being loved.” Family
is freighted with wreckage and pain even
as the speaker of these poems takes tentative
steps to shoulder the past’s “delicate boulder.”
Even natural phenomena are viewed through
an overlay of domestic violence, as in the poem
“Fist Eclipse.” The collection’s title, Domestic Calicos,
conceals the feral nature of these family relationships
while highlighting the sense of detachment permeating
the collection. I’m grateful for this poet’s perspective
and for the care shown in examining the power,
bleakness, and tenderness of family.”

— Stella Beratlis, Author of Dust Bowl Venus

85 pages, Paperback

Published October 7, 2022

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brazenly raw, ruthlessly death harrowed, yet shaded by hope. This collection of poetry grabs attention from the first— sifting through family trauma to get at the real. Clay uses lived experience in lyrical practice to break the chain of complex familial abuse. A darkly woven expression of true resilience.

[Scott Laudati · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book up at one of Clay’s readings and honestly it’s pretty damn good. Clay has a very succinct way of writing poems, no filler, no nonsense, and they hammer home some vinget from an often tragic life I can only assume Clay lived. It’s not all sad though and even some of the sad made me chuckle - Like the narrators dad driving like a maniac and screaming lyrics to an Eminem song. Clay is a punk rocker and this will certainly appeal to those of our ilk, but even the emo and hardcore kids can find much familiarity in Clay’s words.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poems by Clay Hunt is a must read! Although I don’t read much poetry, a friend highly recommended it to me. Thank goodness they did. It is a raw account of love, longing, and loss.
I highly recommend this book as it captures the struggles of what is to be human. I found myself living vicariously through the author’s poetry.
The poetry is easy to understand and is sure to touch the reader’s soul.

[Vaughn Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clay consistently exhibits a raw and no nonsense style that hooked me on poetry so many years ago. Having read his chapbooks prior to his first full length book, I was genuinely excited to get my hands on this book and it did not disappoint. Do yourself a favor and pick this up immediately.