Jill Jones’ most recent book is How To Emerge (Vagabond Press, 2025). Her previous book, Acrobat Music: New & Selected Poems, was short-listed for the 2024 John Bray Poetry Prize, long-listed for the 2024 ALS Gold Medal and commended in the 2023 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Her work has been widely published in most of the leading literary periodicals in Australia as well as in a number of print and online magazines in New Zealand, Canada, the USA, Britain, Czechia, France and India.
Questions of Air
What chorus blows up the night
Whose chromosome still sings to me
When will the refusals slow down
What card is more lucky than one
Who is the survivor, first or last out of the room
What isn’t worth the forgiveness
When did the words begin falling apart
What weather lets me out in rickety mornings
When did the sun make its nest in my ribs
Why is the sky almost naked
What hand drew this poor heart on a wall
Why have all the leaves left