A new poem by Wellington poet Anahera Gildea. Separation anxiety Healing comes with rhythm, dance the folds of the land it matters how you tell a story that resists breath is healing exchange, recitation a fusilade of calling across the pae … Read more
A new poem by Cadence Chung. Girls just wanna have fun Girls just wanna have fun girls just wanna be fatal eyeliner like slits in their skin lipstick like bloodstains nails like claws Girls just wanna escape but there is no escape when the past rattles from all directions in time so they find escape … Read more
A new poem from novelist and poet James McNaughton. Shark and Leg Seventeen years already of making the bed together, husband and wife. They say you never step in the same river twice and that change is the only constant in life, and truly the linen has changed, … Read more
A new poem by Dunedin-born poet Holly Fletcher. I’ve buried 13 grandmothers and 21 mothers Am I occupied? Last Wednesday there was this huge train full of people running. How they navigated was beyond me. There are so many make-believe sweets that I am making sick in the air at the thought of … Read more
A new poem by Auckland-raised poet Chloe Honum. Elegy with Cannons and Bees It rained all night and still is not over. Nevertheless, the bees drop themselves roughly into autumn. What happened? Why did you have to go? In Albert Park, water arcs continuously from cherubs’ horns. Painted cannons face the city. I … Read more
A new poem by Auckland poet Lily Holloway. modernity to globalisation when I get there as still life and landscape and also portraiture seeking the cacti in small pots who dot the globe slices of pie offer up the vision after the sermon expressing emotions without coherent narrative support because no artist responded to this … Read more
A poem by New Zealand-born writer Rachel Sawaya. It’s That Big my butt is gigantic not in the way that clouds are not a giant peach it doesn’t float like a pair of hot air balloons it’s more of a flatbed truck with a load of timber and a loose tarp or rather, … Read more
A new poem by Waiheke poet Rata Gordon. Pacing A deep bow to Neruda It so happens I am sick of being a woman. It happens that I walk into BP stations and supermarkets greasy, swollen, like a cow made of soap, losing my way in a field of placentas and pesticides. The smell of … Read more
A new poem by London-based poet Morgan Bach. Turning, hurtling I march diligently to sunshine in the park everything bathed and turning golden. A woman breathes fire by the folly framing her like a personal door to hell. Conkers are pitched from high boughs to break and give up fruit, a spire emergent from the … Read more
A new poem by performance poet Carrie Rudzinski. Love Poem after Seven Years At this point it’s difficult to sleep without you. I prefer to take up the whole bed with you in it, just to listen to your protests before I fall asleep. I’ve said No to your drunk half-proposals more times than … Read more
A poem by Christchurch scholar Paul Millar. Thx for the memories for the people of the Avon Loop At first we didn’t see we were sinking, or that over our heads ice was hardening. How could so many be all, and all end? By the time someone noticed, we were on the … Read more
A new poem by Waikato poet Loren Thomas. to convince myself we’re dreaming we were walking through suburbia houses kissing front lawns copied one after another you tasted like mint leaves and chlorophyll that’s been pissed on by cats I held your hand and we walked towards the ocean dodging planks from dead train … Read more
New work by Island Bay poet James Brown. Cruelty to Animals We got you so the children could learn about looking after something more vulnerable than themselves – aged 4 and 6 as they were – learn how to feed you and keep your water topped up, and to let you in and out when … Read more
New poetry by Auckland writer Joanna Cho. 1:52 Tsukuru, I wish I could watch a kererū with you. The roots of hyacinths are soft like leeks in the frying pan, or feet in the bath , and it’s these that make a mess. The locations of pipes, … Read more
New verse from Sydney-based poet Catherine Vidler. The weirdness of trees I love the weirdness of trees, but that’s not an opinion. In my opinion, shapes take the shape of things other than my opinion but inseparably from my opinion about the shapes themselves. Does that make sense? What is your opinion on the way … Read more
New poetry by Wellington writer Chris Tse. The Magician—Notes on distraction Every time I turn to see where I should be looking I see my reflection. ~ There is so much of the world within reach from your desk—screens within screens, and holes within holes—tails wagging dogs, and newspapers crying wolf. … Read more
A new poem sequence by Wellington poet Jackson Nieuwland. They told me to be myself, so I entered the hive. Bees the size of my head descended upon me. They covered every inch of my body like a chrysalis. I continued walking forward, through a blur of buzz and fuzz. At the center of … Read more
Verse by Wellington writer Bill Manhire. My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. From Some Things to Place in a Coffin, by Bill Manhire (Victoria University Press, $30), available at Unity Books. Feature image courtesy of Auckland War … Read more
A poem by the great Fleur Adcock from her book Collected Poems, launched this week. Toads Let’s be clear about this: I love toads. So when I found our old one dying, washed into the drain by flood-water in the night and then – if I can bring myself to say it … Read more
New poetry by Wellington writer Carolyn DeCarlo. Winter Swimmers We are not swimming pools, our faces never submerged in water long enough to breathe, never dipped below the surface, eyes absorbing the chlorine and urea flushing milky pink. We do not share the sunblock, our fingers wet and greasy … Read more
Ashleigh Young talks about her feelings as she steps into her new role as poetry editor at The Spinoff Review of Books. Last week I read some poems from Gregory Kan’s poetry collection Under Glass (forthcoming in March with Auckland University Press). I tried to describe them to a friend, and said, “They’re amazing” in about … Read more
New verse by Devonport writer Kevin Ireland. Lamb stew with bonus Gently fry tomatoes and green peppers. Toss them in a casserole. Use olive oil, not butter. Flavour them with home-cured bacon, and throw in plenty of shallots – they’re better halved or whole. Don’t forget turmeric, herbs, black pepper, and, of … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Emma Neale. Mère-mare Last night in my sleep my baby’s father came to take him away from me. I had borne a boy I was forbidden to hold though his mouth was sere and sore and golden colostrum welled in me like the cells’ own cry for … Read more
New verse by Auckland writer Tusiata Avia, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD Festival this weekend. Some notes for critics 1. Yeah, sometimes my poems are dark 2-5. Get over it 6. Maybe life 7. I could write about landscape but it fucken bores me 8. Monet drews … Read more
New verse by Scottish poet Robin Robertson, who will appear at the Christchurch WORD literary festival and at LitCrawl in Wellington. Beside Loch Iffrin for Catherine Lockerbie Late January, and the oak still green, the year already wrong. The season miscarried – the lambs in the field, and the blossom blown – the … Read more
New verse by Kaipara poet Sam Hunt. Mum and Mary In the dream my mother is chatting with her friend, Mary, mother of Jesus – Mum and Mary sharing a joint. Mary tends to rabbit on about the cost of living, of everything ‘going up’; husband, Joseph, coming in lately … Read more
New verse by Wellington poet Tayi Tibble. Ode to Johnsonville’s Cindy Crawford 1. Once at a Jehovah’s Witness convention an old frightened man pleaded, Adrienne? Is that you? His face was a screwed-up ball of God-fearing agony and, accused, I blurted, No! I’m just her daughter! I remember the relief in his features; it was … Read more
New verse by Dunedin writer Vincent O’Sullivan. Lines from way back The Senate seethes, as in an emperor’s reign. The deals are done, speeches endorse the corpse. Pussy and circuses stake out their claim. Immigrants, bankers, slip their varied hoops. Maggots exult that nature bred them white, Their slither vermicules to get it … Read more
New Zealand poet laureate Selina Tusitala Marsh marks the very fine and wonderful occasion of the birth of a daughter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford. Jacinda and Clarke and the Baby and Us: A Rondeau The baby’s here, the baby’s here! Aotearoa, New Zealand, what a year! Jacinda, our partnered … Read more