This poem is freshly lifted from the notebook. It was written after I’d had lunch and was looking at my back garden – it is a place of pride and shame. Pride because it can feed my family and shame because we do not give it the attention it deserves while at the same areContinue reading “Uncontainable lust for life”
Author Archives: angeletoomey
The anti-list poem poem
Speaking only for me and my writing, I tend to write list poems when I am feeling stalled and need to just start pushing my pen across the paper to unblock. Perhaps this is why my list poems tend to be rants about how messed up the patriarchy is…you have agree it generates a LOTContinue reading “The anti-list poem poem”
Water
This poem is one I’ve been kicking around for a while. There was a perfect iteration but I lost it and can won’t ever be able to recreate the magic. Falling Like water falling over waterfalls Like water flowing in tidal waves. Like water washing over time again. Like tears falling in waterfalls flowing asContinue reading “Water”
You, my imagined reader
Today’s offering is not a poem. It is perhaps a short story of sorts. I wrote it as I was putting my book together about 2 years ago. Writing is an incredibly solitary experience, and when the words are released into the wild the author loses any control over how they are understood or treated.Continue reading “You, my imagined reader”
Riding the pandemic waves
This poem was inspired by my return to the office this week, the first time in three months I had to use my swipe card, sit at my desk, say hi to whole people (and not just their head and shoulders). It was also the tail end of the school holidays. The return Like seagullsContinue reading “Riding the pandemic waves”
I really don’t want BDE
Today’s poem is about the weird way that society has managed to gender ‘boss energy’ and charisma…aka Big Dick Energy. It is totally ridiculous and redundant…but reflects how easily the ‘otherness’ of people who don’t fit the arbitrary heteronormative, male-centric standards is created. It is applied to almost every aspect of life and results inContinue reading “I really don’t want BDE”
Friday commute
This poem was written BC (before covid) when I was commuting every day for work on crowded trains and buses. This one was written in the 10 minutes it took me to travel between Petone station and my front gate. https://www.wellingtonnz.com/experience/see-and-do/best-things-to-do-in-petone/ One sided conversation I know about your hopes and dreams Heard the fear inContinue reading “Friday commute”
Middle-aged angst
From my experience so far, middle-aged angst is exactly like teenage angst except it comes with more mortgage, better wine and fewer eyebrows (google it, it’s a menopause thing)…the existential dread is as firm and pert as ever though. Imposter Can I carry this mantle Such great expectations and dreams Could my words really ReachContinue reading “Middle-aged angst”
From words to action
Today’s poem is dragged from the deep recesses of the archive. It was written on a scrap of paper one evening as I was coming home from work on a rickety old diesel bus. In an epiphany earlier that day I had decided to start looking for another job. I had been employed to doContinue reading “From words to action”
Moments of mist
Today’s poems feature a natural phenomena that I find endlessly fascinating…mist. Forest mist is particularly evocative, I love it the water droplets hang like moments held in suspended animation. Drawing back the mist The mist disperses revealing the battle between my dreams and the monsters that lurk in the day light. This next one isContinue reading “Moments of mist”
Angele Toomey Poetry 