Sample poetry

Within My Mother’s Arms


Within this soft, enchanting place

I’m given all I need —

Sweet, rich milk, a warm embrace;

And in this soft, enchanting place,

I find my mother’s wondrous face,

Then sleep, then wake, then feed and feed…

Within this soft, enchanting place,

I’m given all I need.


by Marija Smits


First published in Juno magazine, Winter 2012, Issue 30

Beautiful Girl on The King’s Road, London


Looking back on the scene,

Well I knew I was right;

I was right to have left you,

And glad to be free.

As I walked through the city

In my short, summer dress

I felt one with the city;

Alive and abuzz.

My hair freshly dyed

And a smile on my lips;

I was free of your chains,

And alive and abuzz.

My old life had gone

And I welcomed the new

And the city,

It promised so much.

by Marija Smits


First appeared in Concrete Jungles, Dagda Publishing 2012


To Death, may he be pleased with his handiwork


GRIEF it has withered me, hollowed me out;
I am brittle and frail, like a skeleton leaf.
I’ve no colour within me, no beauty without,
GRIEF it has withered me, hollowed me out.
I am terribly cold and riddled with doubt,
All my Joy has been stolen by Death, petty thief.
GRIEF it has withered me, hollowed me out;
I am brittle and frail, like a skeleton leaf.


By Marija Smits

This triolet first appeared in The Road Less Travelled, published by Dagda Publishing, 2012