Poetry archive

Poems about loss

What was there and is not: houses, habits, people. Poems that hold the shape of the gap.

Hold these poems in your hands — see the print editions →

Cover art for the poem “The White Coat”

The White Coat

by Ella Tan · 8 September 2026

A cold, plain poem about the distance between a man's public reputation and the house he goes home to. This is a work of fiction; characters and circumstances have been fictionalised.

Read the full poem →
Cover art for the poem “They Called It Safety”

They Called It Safety

by Ella Tan · 30 August 2026

A mother's reckoning — a literary, subjective poem about institutions that rename power as virtue, and a mother who refuses to let an official judgment become the truth about her love.

Read the full poem →
Cover art for the poem “A Note from the Doll”

A Note from the Doll

by Ella Tan · 30 August 2026

A doll writes home to the girl who loved her — a poem about leaving, change, and the long way love takes to return. For Lotus.

Read the full poem →