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Kia Groom

Kia Groom

Kia Groom is founding editor of Quaint Magazine. The recipient of an Academy of American Poets award, the runner-up for the 2014 Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and a pushcart nominee, Kia's work has been published in The Mary Sue, Delirious Hem, and other blogs and magazines, as well as journals such as Cordite, Going Down Swinging, Westerly, Permafrost and Inky Needles. Her work is forthcoming in the Hunter Anthology of Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry and HYSTERIA: Writing the Female Body.

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Tulpa’ by Kia Groom

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016
from the Tibetan meaning 'to build' or 'to construct' I. In 1992, Alice made a Tulpa. Carry an amulet. Kiss its three sharp corners. Shine. It began subjective, but with practice could be seen: imagined ghost that flickered in the physical world, a sort of self-induced hallucination. Recall the chalk clouds. Recall the scent of symbols scratched on motel walls. Remember rising damp, the face ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Phantasmagoria’ by Kia Groom

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016
Dot by dot, the backsof eyelids. Draw it slowly,shape of sentimental spine.You curve that way. I breathe the countdown& the world falls, air by air. In the white room you cloudover bedsheets,unsettled weather, & no electriclight will dare illuminate. Your skin tastes clean sky,polished gray. That clarity,sharp on the tongue.I snap off the hallway,let shadows nip like kittens. You are s ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Catholic Education’ by Kia Groom

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016
Itch in the vein, the road hot stillfrom sun, an asphalt streambisecting unlit houses. Slip of an alleycat through a spittle of starlight. Last cigarette, the way Em curlsher yellow fingers into small mouthedsweater sleeves. Clock tower bites light through the emptyparking lot. Gates we broke apart last summer, sametime I lost the laces from the leatherpunctures in my too-small shoes, loom. I t ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Alice at Last’ by Kia Groom

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016
'Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly...'– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland   I un-wake to damage.Light-bulb stutters, franticonce off, once on, illuminatesimagined cityskyline. Inside my bedroom it rainsfor days. The headfull of synaptic hauntingsshudders. Old-milk skydimming. I tell myself there isa world outsidethe world. Stay stillcompletelystill & gather dus ... (read more)