by Kate Birch | Sep 15, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
Relevant, brave and urgently important Subtle description of very complicated inter personal inter cultural situation. Sometimes a poem is of the moment. It needs to be read, its contents needs to be heard. ‘At the End of the Class’ by Viv Fogel is...
by Kate Birch | Aug 19, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
I love it. It so accurately demonstrates the painfulness of those early days when your language competency is so limited that your personality feels suppressed! A spare, straightforward poem utilising what editing intern Sabine Wilson-Patrick called a ‘blunting...
by Kate Birch | Jul 16, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
Something wholesome and devastating about this poem. It stayed with me – it grew inside me. It has a classic feel to it. The word beautiful was written over and over again in voters’ comments but there was also an ambiguity, a tinge of sadness and it is...
by Kate Birch | Jun 14, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
The mixture of love, longing, nostalgia and its undercurrent of exasperation perfectly sums up the emotions involved in dealing with the loss and attendant tasks and duties when our parents die. Losing a parent can be an overwhelming and complex process. The initial...
by Kate Birch | May 13, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
An artful description of the feeling by simultaneous belonging and separation of second-generation immigrant from their ancestral homeland That sense of simultaneous belonging and separation, of connection and longing was key to those who voted for this amazing poem....
by Kate Birch | Apr 12, 2026 | News, Picks of the Month
It captures the silence and stillness of childhood snow and all it can mask and hide beautifully It was a poem of two halves. Some voters were drawn to the joy of playing in the snow. It had a ‘vivid wintry feels’, it reminded them of their childhood, with...
