Author: Joan Fleming

is the author of two collections of poetry, The Same as Yes (VUP, 2011) and Failed Love Poems (VUP, 2015), and the chapbook Two Dreams in Which Things Are Taken (Duets). Her new collection Dirt is forthcoming. She holds a PhD in ethnopoetics from Monash University, and is the New Zealand/Aotearoa Commissioning Editor for Cordite Poetry Review. She currently lives in Madrid, and in 2020 she will travel to Honduras for the Our Little Roses Poetry Teaching Fellowship.

Joan Fleming

Night interview Is it the past that hurts?               This is where I try to sleep Did you reason with it?               For a time And the flowers?               There were a purple      they paled in the middle Did they please the room?               They pleased themselves You were gifted clothes.               No fit      was fire enough There was talk of a… Continue reading Joan Fleming

Joan Fleming

Twenty questions What did my tenderness suggest to you           was it too sweet            was it not enough         What I wanted               was it too rough                 ██████ ██████████████████████████████████       Was it your pained puppy–dog ███████        eke ██████       Was it the red dogs’ feet barking through the afternoons             did they mark their needs ██████████████                                in your too–soft wood floor Was I too good          and then    at some sly test             no good at… Continue reading Joan Fleming