The Poetry Distillery is The Poetry Barn’s literary journal. Established in 2018, we harvest a diverse sampling of some the most exciting poems generated in our community, working closely with our authors to distill their poems to perfection as an extension of the workshop process.

Placenta Honey

A black crimson 

oozes out of me 

a honey we are drunk 

on these Holy 

Waters turned to 

mead by swarms  

of women swimming 

in my bodily 

fluids the midwife presses 

the placenta into 

my mouth stains 

blood with the 

moans of a music 

not heard at all 


Sasha Siem is a musician, writer and mother living in the UK. She studied music at Cambridge and has a PhD in Music and Poetry from Harvard University. Her work - for which she has been awarded a British Composer Award - has been performed by The London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Opera House, and Aldeburgh Music among others. She has released 5 alt-pop albums to critical acclaim and has recently authored The Way of Light on Water, which is her first poetry collection.

While lawyers argue

Threatened Species