He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1967, where he was the co-winner of the E. J. Pratt Prize, shared with Michael Ondaatje.
He then earned a Master of Fine Arts from the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 1969.
Although he was invited as a delegate to the founding conference of the League of Canadian Poets, and helped organize the Kingston's Writers' Association, the Kingston branch of Canadian Artists' Representation, and The Monday Night Boys, Clifford has never allied himself with a school, group or faction.
His work demonstrates this independence, moving between elegant, dense and often highly musical freer compositions to an unfashionable but exquisitely made formalism.
Clifford has published in a broad range of journals, from The Canadian Forum, Queen's Quarterly and ARC to avant-garde magazines like bill bisset's Blewointment, bpNichol's ganglia, and Sheila Watson's Pelican.