Iona Winter

Category: Aotearoa

  • Rage and Earth Bones

    I’ve been reflecting on my rage, its potency, and the things it contains. And I’ve realised that I’m exhausted from hiding invisible pain, in the forms of grief, disability, and discrimination. Exhausted from being ‘strong and resilient’. And exhausted from trying to figure out who I am, now that my…

  • A Recital of Poems – Diane Brown, Robert Beveridge, Pris Campbell, Iona Winter & Vaughan Rapatahana — Love in the Time of COVID

    A Recital of Poems – Diane Brown, Robert Beveridge, Pris Campbell, Iona Winter & Vaughan Rapatahana — Love in the Time of COVID Today, a new toikupu Book of the dead has been published with Love in the Time of COVID. The poem references Reuben’s Totems album Bardo Thodol (2013)…

  • Milestones

    2022 blessings to you and your whānau WordPress peeps. Wishing you peace, as we traverse this ever-changing landscape which has become our world. 2022 has seen me complete my latest manuscript, and it’s gone off for some expert eyes to take a fresh look. This collection, started after Reuben’s death,…

  • Inhabit

    This post may be seen as contentious, or a myriad of other labelling things. So if you’re someone who thinks that oppression, separatism and exclusion are okay, please feel free to unfollow me. What has become clear is that I can no longer remain quiet, in response to what I…

  • ‘Each day’s same horizon to be faced’

    I am a gramophone on the subject. Each day’s same horizon to be faced. You long to fade out into it, yourself. I look doggedly after a missing figure. What to do now is clear, and wordless. You will bear what can not be borne. (from ‘He lies somewhere in…

  • Sparagmos or Aroha?

    For a while I’ve been thinking about the ways I connect, and the risk I take in being unapologetically myself. It has become increasingly distressing to see how people treat one another, particularly online — despite the ‘be kind’ messages that are trotted out. Every day I observe divisive and…

  • Not my best look

    I know. It’s not my best look. But I wrote a poem today entitled, ‘When did you ever ask me about my mental health?’ Recently I’ve been reflecting on my lifelong capacity to endure ineffable mamae, trauma and loss. My ability to be alongside other people in their distress, with…

  • My cheeky wee fulla…

    I wanted to write something last Friday but couldn’t, and then I asked myself who would I have been writing it for anyway? If I am honest, this past year has been about learning to read others, witness their pain and anger (sometimes unspoken), and/or notice their avoidance ~ it…

  • Toikupu / Poems please…

    Delighted to be the incoming Poetry Ed. for The Weekend Mix at the Otago Daily Times. Kia ora rawa Tom McKinlay for the mīharo interview and Diane Brown for the handover. If you’re a poet south of the Waitaki River, we’d love to read your work. Previously unpublished, under 35…

  • 2021 Verb Writer’s Residency

    Some of you may know that I’ve recently had major surgery to remove pelvic mesh. That’s another story for a later date, BECAUSE on discharge day I was surprised to hear that I’ve been awarded the 2021 Verb Writer’s Residency with Katherine Mansfield House & Garden. Rather than giving you…