Iona Winter

Category: Aotearoa

  • an opinion piece

    Yes, yes, slacker alert blog-wise! It’s been a bonkers fortnight, with little time for anything other than work and sleep, and the odd chat with the chooks. Zero writing accomplished, but there’s always tomorrow. Yesterday I got home early from work (for a change), made a cuppa and looked through my social media links.…

  • Flash Tea

    This week I purchased some quality herb tea. A flash brand, rather than the sawdust they sell in the supermarkets. What I like most (beyond the taste of course) are the tags. Each one has a message printed on it. Today’s tag says, ‘Life without love is like a ship without sails’. Nice. How romantic.  My…

  • Stagger

    Sand ridges in perfect formation like frozen waves caress the beach.   I walk the track a drunkard’s stagger timed with the ocean.   ‘You have to pass by the door of death in order to be reborn’ you whispered.   Ageless kelp beds cushion my fall into the sea green like…

  • Parrots & Pay Equity

    This week while faithfully doing downward dog, I’ve been able to smell wet earth, for no particular reason. But it’s been coming up through the floor when my nose is near it. Maybe because it rained this week and our drought afflicted earth has slurped it up. Either that or…

  • Fallen Idols

    Several famous people have left this landscape of late. Where they are headed, only they can know. Perhaps for some they are fallen idols – not to be confused with idylls or ideals. Idols are just that – idols. They’re not gods or goddesses, they live, breathe and pooh just like everyone…

  • Resolute Blankness

    Another calendar year has passed. And a new one has begun. Where will this year lead, or should I be leading it? ‘The Novel’ has morphed into a concise, punchy short story. I sent it off the other day to several literary journals (both here in NZ and overseas). I felt sadness and…

  • I had a friend like that…

    I had a friend like that…

    I had a friend like that once too.   He spoke to me of faraway places with the sun in his eyes.   I remember his crinkled mouth edges and tree-like arms around my back.   I had a friend like that once too.   You told me today of…

  • Sea Blossoms

    I love how the wind swirls blossoms around the footpath.   It reminds me of your hair and kelp in the ocean, dragged by the currents.   I imagine myself swimming below your wiry frame star-fished in the water.   Broken pieces of ourselves suspended in the rhythmic caress of…

  • The P Word

    Here I am mooching around the wasteland of the interweb looking for inspiration. Or is that just the p word—procrastination? I decided to remove myself from social media (aka major distraction). Now, at the eleventh hour, I’m questioning the decision and wondering if it’s a feeble attempt to be less…

  • Invisible Scars

    Most days, I am struck repeatedly (no pun intended) by mainstream media’s words and images from other countries, where sexual violence atrocities towards women and children continue to happen. It’s very easy to turn our western faces towards these countries or cultures, cast judgements or express concern, all the while ignoring what’s occurring…