Poetry for Cordite 89: DOMESTIC is guest-edited by Natalie Harkin.

I invite you to lean into this DOMESTIC sphere in all its homely undoing. Use words like beautiful bait to seduce hearts with razor-sharp decolonising intent and rupture the masquerading shape of cosy bliss, as only a poem can. Haunt with your words, for there is unfinished business on this domestic front yet to be reckoned with. Toil your words and share the swollen, blistering, back-breaking load to sweep-up and expose this whole mess. Use your words like a class action against those who actively refuse us a healthy and diverse and peaceful, beloved community. Bear witness to history’s omissions and let future generations know you are with them. Breathe your words straight to them despite fearing what tomorrow’s air will taste like. Honour their future as hopeful and loved and safe and just and whole. Protest for them, and return some nutrient-vision to a parched, gasping foundation that drifts and slides elusive, almost impossible to grasp. Plant old local seeds with your words so they grow into story trees with the deepest roots and life-giving canopies; that may shape their worlds, shelter and birth them, feed them and make them feel well. Let us unravel these starched-white apron-strings, sip hot-black-tea from chipped porcelain tea-cups and get uncomfortable together; un-settle this DOMESTIC front and shape what survival looks and feels like.

Domestic Help / Domestic Mess / Domestic Front / Domestic Prowess / Domestic Violence / Domestic Goddess / Domestic Blooms / Domestic Slave / Domestic Livestock / Domestic Wage / Domestic Borders / Domestic Soil / Domestic Power / Domestic Law / Domestic Cleaner / Domestic Care / Domestic Climate / Domestic Affairs / Domestic Union / Domestic Bliss / Domestic Homeland / Domestic Service / Domestic Safety / Domestic Control / Domestic Cook / Domestic Apron / Domestic Ranks / Domestic Rights / Domestic Products / Domestic Quarters / Domestic Uniform / Domestic Protection / Domestic Load / Domestic Pleasure / Domestic Exploitation / Domestic Diaspora / Domestic Origins / Domestic Appliance / Domestic Budget

Submit poems (prose, comics, visual, concrete) or works of micro-fiction (500 words maximum). Read more about submitting to Cordite Poetry Review. Please note:

1. We will only read submissions sent during our official submission periods.

2. Cordite maintains a hybrid submissions policy. This means that the guest editor may invite five (5) Australian and five (5) overseas authors directly to submit to the issue. In addition, the guest-editor will anonymously select an additional 30-35 works from Australian authors and use their discretion to select further overseas works. For each issue, the guest editor does not know the identities of the online contributors (via Submittable) until after the final selections have been made.

3. Simultaneous submissions or previously published material will not be considered. This includes works published in print and web journals but does not apply to material first published on personal blogs.

4. Please place up to three (3) poems in one (1) Word, RTF or PDF document (unless specifically noted otherwise for special issues), with no identifying details in the document itself.

5. We are not able to offer feedback on individual poems.

6. Submissions will only be accepted via Submittable …