“‘Grief’ is a poem that I wrote shortly after losing my grandmother. I was overseas when I got the news and did not have the chance to fly back to see her one last time, and grief is a musing of how empty I felt, and a contemplation of how little death has affected my life personally. I trashed the piece because I did not think it would be easy to relate to, as most people who have lost people to death react with more grief, and more pain, rather than quiet contemplation and musings.”

“I wrote this poem 2 years ago. It was written out of anger because a big part of my family was being homophobic towards me and my sister. They tried to tell us that all of their bullshit was love. I never posted it cause I know it has a lot of mistakes and it can be hard to read, I'm not even sure if it can be called a poem.”

“I threw away these poems because they 1. Weren't that interesting in a literary sense. The rhymes were boring and it just wasn't that technically interesting. And 2. Because it just felt too personal, like nobody else would really get it. But hey, that's what trash to treasure lit is all about!”

“This poem came about after my mother and I played a game collating words relating to animals. This is the type of useless but fun way we both like to relax. I wrote this poem several years ago. I used to write the odd poem but have since given that up, preferring instead to read poetry. When I found this poem again recently, I realised how much I enjoyed the wordplay involved in crafting it.”

“Saccharine garbage. No point of view. Could have been written by anyone. Didn’t even happen.”

“I have a tendency sometimes to write what I kind of think of as “you had to be there” poems. Believe me when I say this is a dead-on accurate description of the scene that occurred when a few of my friends went away for a weekend, and the drive home – but there’s a difference between diary and art, and this is the former.”

“This piece was one that I spent a lot of time tinkering with, but I could never quite get it right. That tends to happen a lot when I try to write poems about birds. I think I go overboard on the imagery without providing enough connecting tissue to make it clear where the metaphor ends and the object begins.”

TW* police violence, racism, George Floyd murder and the D. Chauvin trial

”I wrote this poem while watching the trial as I describe. I was taken by the fear and hatred in his eyes. It was such a timely poem I couldn't find a place to publish it then it became dated.”

“I wrote this poem maybe after reading too much Mary Oliver not that that's a bad thing, and always felt it was a bit too syrupy to put out into the world. My love letter to my beloved companion, Lulu, the Dog Wonder.”

“This piece was made out of random thoughts while I was struggling with burn out and panic attacks, not caring for myself properly. It was trashed after returning to it and worrying it was raw childish whinging.”

“This poem was written early one morning on the train into my day job. I scribbled it off, typed it up weeks later and thought it was too basic to do anything further with. I think it’s a bit twee, and to be honest being seen as twee is my greatest fear.”

“I felt like it came out sort of dumb, and didn’t know if I really liked it. Thought it was too obvious of a poem.”

“I never did anything with this poem for three reasons: 1. I was in a foul mood when I wrote it. 2. The tone came off as mean-spirited and one-sided. 3. The poem is overly self-referential, as it specifically pertains to Bisbee, Arizona, where I live.”

“This poem simply wasn’t going anywhere, so I abandoned it and went to bed.”

“This poem seemed rather short and pointless, although one of my friends thought it was brilliant. He’s really into dreams. I couldn’t figure out what the hell to do with it, however.”

“I abandoned these pieces a year ago because they didn't ringading last winter, but here we are again almost (in my Northern Hemisphere though not down under).”