POETRY
Poems find me. I didn’t set out to write poems but they kept turning up. I trust this kind of thing…
Sometimes sharing a poem (my own or another’s) can speak of difficulties and delights much more clearly than ‘ordinary language’ can ever do.
I sometimes wonder if it’s a luxury to devote time to them, an avoidance of getting my body on the front line, or my sleeves rolled up where it’s needed. I don’t think I’ll ever find peace with that question. I think that’s appropriate.
I do have a Patreon page where you can find a few more poems. I have been a little quiet there of late. If you’re moved to nudge me to prioritise poeting, donate! And send me a message…
FEATURED POEMS
“... poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”
– Audre Lord
DESERT DATA: MENOPAUSE AS INITIATION
I’m working on a collection from my experience of menopause as an initiatory journey. This 10 year transition (around 2009-2019) took me through intense pain, transformation, chaos and revelation. It led me to a deeper understanding of love, reciprocity, rage and mystery. For 6 months in 2016, I followed a vision of being in the desert “for a good amount of time, hanging out with ‘god’”. This took me to Scotland, Dartmoor and Jordan. Let me know if you’d like to hear when it’s finished!
BONES AND HONEY
“A collection of poems made of soil and grief, silence and delight, politics and dancing. Scrimshawed on bones and drizzled with honey… Words that rocked up on pages of notebooks and backs of envelopes between 2010-ish and early 2016. Words that came mid meditation, in the woods, on the tube to the Occupy camp at St Paul's and in those moments when only art can hack it, even if I didn't know that at the time.”
“Toni is like some kind of mythological creature that holds spaces implausibly well”
“...but reading this poem, below, was like punches being thrown, so rough and demanding to be listened to, yet revealing such tenderness, expressing love so fiercely. ”
