Welcome to Heard and Held creative writers community
An online journal featuring original works by women, trans and non-binary writers.
Radio Laria is an inclusive accessible community of poets and writers both in our regular live events and online. Heard and Held aims to provide a safe place for work to be seen and heard without judgement, also a place where our words can be held, digitally archived to be shared and re-shared as part of our collective futures.
We accept and encourage work that is true to lived experience, vulnerable, courageous and authentic.
While these posts are screened by an editor they are read at your own risk. Content and views on this blog are not necessarily shared by Radio Laria, yet in the spirit of free expression and creativity there may be content that is offensive to some readers.
Submissions are open to women, trans and non-binary writers.
Poetry, prose, short story and essays are accepted on any theme up to a maximum of 500 words. Accompanying imagery is encouraged, a maximum of 3 images can be included with your submission, must be used by permission, credited and of online publishing quality.
If you use or refer to the work of another, please credit/reference them correctly, any referencing style is fine.
There is no age requirements and submissions are accepted worldwide.
The is no fee/payment for submissions.
Any queries, comments and feedback welcomed.
submissions to radiolariapoetry@gmail.com
OUT by Zoe Xanadu
- Post author
By girlsonkey Post date
Out.
I’m out.
Mum, I’m gay,
I texted her.
That’s nice dear.
As in you’ve renamed yourself, or like two poofy men?
Homphobic bitch.
Out.
I’m out.
Striding through the Autumn morning in my walking shoes
Seeking solace in the beauty outside me
from the rage that churns within
The grey blanket of the pre-dawn sky warms me not,
but offers me great comfort,
with the reassuring reminder that I am
at once
infinitesimal
and as expansive as the universe
A blush emerges as the sun comes back from the other side of the world, busy tart
A suggestive apricot, fuzzy and without edges, and with the optimism of Alabama Whitman
“She tastes like a peach”
how truly did I want to taste her mouth
Still I stride, breathing through my swirling truth
And now, somehow, streaks of pink and blue
Audacious as those marine creatures that you think have surely been exaggerated
in the artist’s depiction
I can even forgive my ancestors for believing in sky god
Out.
I’m out.
Here under this cracking morning sky, remembering to notice the beauty of the universe.
Mary Oliver eat your heart out!
Savour those juices as they stream down your chin
Rivulets forming in your cleavage invitationally
for another lover
of life to slurp at
Yum.
Mum, I like to lick life juice off the tits of women poets.
Still I stride, rounding the corner, home comes into view.
And in the valley beyond, down over the town to the west
The sun, my current favourite artist, has invited the morning mist to dance.
A rainbow!
My queer little heart opens in bliss.
Life really does love me!
And I love her right back,
most Sapphically indeed.
- Zoe Xanadu
More work by this artist can be found at spritelymusings
Captain Kindness by Anke MacLean
- Post author
By girlsonkey Post date
Entering data daily
For the Department
Dutifully and with diligence.
Traveling by night in a heartbeat
From moments of cruelty
To places of violence
From hours of brutality
To the instant of the latest abuse
But seconds before it happens
It’s a superpower.
The not-yet victims are whisked away
To cotton-wool-confused safety
But the perpetrator
The villain
Is wrapped tight
Close
In a cape
Smelling of sweet, aged, lavender
Fuzzy with grandma’s love
Full of stories and lullabies
Until it turns salty wet
Hugging
Hugging
Until the dam breaks
Birthday Ditty by Carly Fern
- Post author
By girlsonkey Post date
36 today
nothing profound to say
just a birthday rhyme
composed in the sunshine
I thought it would be raining
but p‘aps BOM‘s aim is waining
a morning cup of tea
daydreams of overseas
A croissant for my breaky
birthday basic Becky
BUT
perhaps St.Kilda brunch?
I‘ve packed a lot of punch
in my 3 plus decs alive
I‘ve plunged and I have dived
Coz lifes a finite gas
and boy does it go fast
I want to do it all
‘pon this spinning ball
That could have been the end
just then
but here I am again
one more thing to say
Dont forget to play!
Happy birthday Carly! Love Girls on Key x
Mushrooms
- Post author
By girlsonkey Post date
Last night I dreamt I was mushrooms
many, an impossible body
impusle led
mycelium my spine
I spoke a mouthless language
all questions were answers already known
although
there really was nothing to know
I was everything at once
sugars of us hummed
soft breath
shared lung
fusing
time to matter
fusing
limbs to the land
nine veiled brides kept an eye
on my way to Beneath
the underground scene of the lacemakers lair
sleep and wake are not separate here
in the warm, wet digs of the soft hooded sisters
dark web
city lights
expand beyond us
fingers, one finger
brain, body fuel, we move into forever
- Emma Fayelecaun (2019)
Mushrooms is part of the 2019 release Sugar and Bones limited edition illustrated book of poetry available here on the artists website.
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