A new poem from Tim Upperton. My childhood I was Dick. I teased Anne and George. I was Edmund, betrayed my friends for a sweet. Something rotten in me. Cast out, castaway. For long years I had an island to myself. I lived on corn, goat-meat, fish. All changed by a single footprint in the … Read more
A new poem by Joan Fleming. HISTORY after TOMAŽ ŠALAMUN Joan Fleming is discomposed. She gathers the soft rabbits of complaint. She has a special cage. She is as happy as clay and strawberries. Joan Fleming is ashamed not to love all the things her mother keeps for her. The burgundy handknit with the flaccid … Read more
A new poem by recent IIML graduate Joanna Cho. Send to Robyn Immediately On Thursdays I clean for a woman who looks like Robyn. I love Robyn! She’s so sexy, in a way that I’m working on, you know, like she is in tune with her body… Robyn’s dance moves are as smooth as eye … Read more
A new poem from Wellington poet Dani Yourukova. All my plants are dead and I’m pretty sure it’s your fault I think it’s extremely inconsiderate of you – showing up and being exactly the sort of person that I would become immediately obsessed with. The planet is dying and so is my half price orchid … Read more
A new poem from Dunedin poet Jenny Powell. Her uncle’s eye She introduced us to her uncle’s eye floating in a jar. Lost in an accident, he hadn’t wanted to lose it again. He left it to her in his will. We must have looked shocked. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I turn him to the … Read more
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes. While you were partying I studied the blade I your ever-loving edgelord God-emperor of the bot army & bitcoin mine subsisting on an IV drip of gamer girl bathwater finally my loneliness is your responsibility………. you see I need a girlfriend assigned to … Read more
The last Friday Poem for 2020 is by Dunedin poet Michael Hall. End Poem Not everything falls or fails; rocket ships still roar into the next world like a boy after feeding the dog one cool evening twelve years old scaling the sun fading face of an unwalled barn clutching for terse straw, fingers seeking … Read more
A poem by Melbourne-based New Zealand poet Jennifer Compton. Under the Flight Path I raise my glass of wine to the silence of the midnight curfew. I am minding house in the inner west for my son and his girlfriend as they jet off to Helsinki. I have been driven out of the house into … Read more
A new poem from Auckland poet Fardowsa Mohamed. Leftovers I burned the bariis on the bottom of the pot my mother shakes her head, and we joke that I am a failed girl At lunchtime the next day I don’t remove the lid fully but they still said I smell burnt and brown. The … Read more
A new poem by Oscar Upperton from a sequence about Dr James Barry, a 19th century surgeon whose gender has been the subject of much debate. Code name Young Barry begins the study of medicine, under a new name and in a new town. A name needs rinsing out, once in a while. I live … Read more
A new poem by poet, designer, artist, and musician Whina Pomana. In response to The Last Mastodon chapbook by Christina Olson So much about the treatment of dead things And incorrect assemblies They built a parking lot on top of Sally Hemings and— The casual disrespect white people have for death that doesn’t look like them And … Read more
A new poem from Auckland poet Andrea Malcolm. Immunosuppressants My heart opens, my heart closes My fist opens, my fist closes My mouth opens, my mouth closes My heart opens, the saga begins My heart opens my heart closes My fist opens my fist closes My mouth opens my mouth closes Somewhere a song of … Read more
A new poem by Greek-New Zealand poet and translator Vana Manasiadis. Having a few beers with my mate My mate you think this is english but it’s not-english if it was english you might expect to hang at this dash – but instead I’m telling you that someone will start yelling. Alotta yelling happens in … Read more
A new poem from Auckland poet Lily Holloway. Sentries I’m frantically chasing my mother who weaves in and out of the aisles throwing down craft supplies. I trip over scissors and quick unpicks not seeing her face, only clean ponytail and collar poking out over plum cardigan. We run between shelves of antique vases but … Read more
A poem by Ockham Award-winning novelist Becky Manawatu. Crumbs between stones Tēnā koe XXXX I am writing to ask you some questions regarding a family harm incident which police responded to on Friday night. What time did the woman make the initial call? What time did police arrive at the scene? Was anyone arrested? If … Read more
A new poem from poet and teacher Rhys Feeney. when i grow up, i want to be nothing at all people pen poems on the bar’s toilet walls polemics for sucking peen & voting for corbyn i read each poem & do a breathing exercise before pissing & checking my phone the muffled reverb of … Read more
A new poem from Dunedin poet Emer Lyons. Elegy for God’s Own Country i too remember the sea of my insides waving at my face but why would anyone want to tame a magpie? it was during the gorse burn the intimacy of your hands as delicate as with new born lambs i’m afraid of … Read more
A new poem by Wellington poet Emma Barnes. If Only If only if only. I could have used my mouth to transmit some meaning. I could have left or come home or done some sort of in between combo of any of these. I could have been the bulldozer, the demolition team, the engineer who … Read more
A poem from essa may ranapiri’s chapbook Polemic. Hook & Cook as a kid I would confuse Captain Hook with Captain Cook their names so similar both pirates in fancy dress one scared of a crocodile with a clock in its mouth the other a man who sails on our 50 cent one a cartoon … Read more
A new poem by Kate Camp. How to Be Happy Though Human From the Circle there was a man we couldn’t see just his fingers held out for emphasis like the hands of a preacher or a primary school teacher. Before that we had been at the film where three people taxidermied a baby zebra … Read more
A new poem from Paula Harris. how to cook cheesecake on a bbq you’ll need to borrow a cheesecake pan from your former best friend who borrowed your cheesecake pan two years ago, he just needed it for a few days, there was a dinner party coming up, a dinner party you weren’t invited to, … Read more
A new poem from Christchurch poet and environmental activist E Wen Wong. passport to the seasons leaves f a l l crisp like coconut husks, fraying threads of winter’s snow. the hairs of the pōhutukawa stand on their necks doused in a chilli seeds they hang like red alfalfa … Read more
A poem by Rhian Gallagher from her new collection Far-Flung. At the Boatshed for Sonja Mitchell We carried the day through the door the harbour had earned its keep light laid its hands on each contour the shed held abreast with the shore spreading the waves in pleats we carried the day through the door … Read more
The publishing debut of New York-based New Zealand poet Gus Goldsack. Go North I got a little thick about the middle, but I’m not talking waist. Waste, though, fuck – I’ve accumulated some baggage. Some I picked up more than willingly, garbage in garbage in garbage in through my eyeballs and out through my mouth. … Read more
Departing Friday Poem editor Ashleigh Young talks to incoming Friday Poem editor Chris Tse. The concept was always simple: on Friday, publish a poem. A new poem or an old poem, but always a good poem. It could be by anyone. When Friday Poem founding editor Steve Braunias invited me to take up the post, … Read more
A new poem by Chris Tse. (Turquoise: Art & Magic) Rothko Chapel, January 2014 A room in which my hushed mind was a kaleidoscope waiting for light. I thought about the past year and the absences I allowed to fill me. I thought I’d never rid myself of the intimacy that pained my … Read more
A new poem by Jordan Hamel. Mermaids When you lose grip and start to drift. The first thing you’re supposed to do is steer into it or steer away? Not all mermaids are royalty someone needs to audit the ocean provide cashflow projections some mermaids are actually middle-aged accountants named Stephen … Read more
A new poem by Michaela Keeble. Only the ocean only the ocean turns me over like this only the ocean turns me on like this only the ocean gives warning: what will change and when so it doesn’t come across like violence white caps drift in on the … Read more
A new poem by Christchurch poet Erik Kennedy. There Is a Man Dancing on the Rudder of an Enormous Cargo Ship having arrived as part of a protest flotilla of kayaks and inflatables and paddleboards, a semi-cohesive squadron of possibility and guerrilla tactics that are half surprise party, half interview with the parole … Read more