Liesl Garner

I’m Liesl Garner — poet and writer, making my way through life with words.

Poetry is how I understand what’s happening while I’m still inside it — grief, midlife, family, the unraveling and the becoming. I don’t write from a distance. I write from the middle.

This space has shifted alongside my life. What you’ll find here isn’t polished or perfectly planned — it’s real-time, lived-in, and honest. Some pieces are quiet, some are messy, some are still figuring themselves out.

Lately, I find myself writing most from the lens of midlife — especially menopause — and all the ways it intersects with identity, memory, motherhood, and change. There’s a particular kind of disorientation here, and also a strange clarity.

I’m not interested in having it all tied up neatly. I’m interested in what’s true, even when it’s uncomfortable, unfinished, or still changing.

If any of this feels familiar, you’re not the only one.