fish eyes
fish eyes fall from sky
humans squash them underfoot
day and night and week and month
fish eyes fall on everyone
some new turn up for the book
only history will complain
why fish eyes fall as rain
and cadence comes upon the wind
to sweep this plague aside
and what remains when eyes subside
without a reason to explain and
no one left to question why
the fish eyes fell from sky
copyright alan peter kelly 2010
Starlight Grey
At last, we strip off our wall-paper skins,
don brocade wedding gowns in readiness
for our year’s end resolution of untested hypotheses.
With tiger sharks looming in murky shallows,
viable financial propositions have failed to materialise:
no wonder we developed a case of cold feet,
no surprise that long-lost relatives clash again over
certain rather tricky matters, wedge-tailed eagles circle
anti-clockwise, goannas salivate in the undergrowth.
Hour by hour, some kind of narrative unfolds:
“Independence is a virtue,” they tell us. Arm in arm,
we move as one, speak with a single voice.
Faced with a chance of unpowered flight,
an opportunity to achieve previously unheralded
altitude, we make the momentous decision to refute
offers of help, deny any attempt to divert our course.
From the sidelines, they call out, “We told you so!”
and, in almost equal parts, “You’ll be glad you did!”
While hyenas smirk, harangue late-comers to the party,
we look confidently through each other’s eyes,
toss high a ceremonial coin, call either heads or tails.
Contains samples of phrases from the TV program guide for “Grey’s Anatomy” and Sagittarian star signs in “The Advertiser” for 18th December 2012.
Ian Gibbins
Poster by Alison Flett
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Friendly Street Poets & the State Library of SA present
Words @ the Wall
Wednesday 15 May 2013
5.30 - 6.15pm
Late afternoon Poetry performances
Treasures Wall, 1st Floor State Library, North Terrace
MC: Louise Nicholas
We’d love to see a massive crowd there supporting poetry in South Australia
Light refreshments kindly provided by the State Library.
This is a FREE event
Everyone is welcome
.
Open Mic Poetry Reading
Malcolm Reid Building, SA Writers’ Centre,
2nd Floor Atrium above Caffe Brunelli
East Rundle Street, Adelaide
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David Mortimer writes poems to read out loud. He believes poetry is for speaking, remembering, and carrying with us, as thought, conversation, music and argument – to entertain the eye, the ear, the mouth and the mind. Mortimer’s third collection, Magic Logic (Puncher & Wattmann 2012) includes poems shortlisted for the Blake, Newcastle, and Montreal poetry prizes. It follows Red in the Morning (Bookends 2005) and Fine Rain Straight Down (Friendly Street New Poets Eight: Barker; Driver; Mortimer; Wakefield 2003).
Further information via South Australian Writers’ Centre (SAWC) at:
http://sawriters.org.au/writing/find-an-author/123-david-mortimer
or Puncher & Wattmann at:
http://www.puncherandwattmann.com/pwmagiclogic.html
_______________________________________________________________________
The Satura Prizes for 2011, 2012 and 2013 will be awarded by Sarah Tooth (Director SA Writers Centre), Jason Lake (Imprints Bookshop) and Mark Parnell (Greens MLC) respectively.
_______________________________________________________________________
Book in from 6.30 p.m. for a prompt 7 p.m. start.
Entry: $5/$6. Refreshments free inside.
Your chance to have your three minutes at the open mic. Every poem read is eligible for selection in our annual anthology. Please bring three copies of your poem and include your name and permission to publish. Read it, place it in the box and it will be be considered by our editors for publication in our anthology.
Disabled access via York Street (runs parallel and south of East Rundle St)
Tuesday, 30 April 2013 18:30
An AGM is required because of the change of financial year to a calendar year as approved at the last AGM. It is anticipated that this AGM will be brief, consisting of:
You must be a current financial member of Friendly Street Poets to speak or vote at the AGM. Refreshments will be provided. |
SA Writers Centre
Level 2, 187 Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000
_________________________________
December 2012
Idle
thoughts on the road
a filly
from a nearby stable
floated behind
a ford mustang
pulling up to the intersection
revving
its two hundred horses
as we eyed each other
from adjoining lanes
the horse and i
Fellow Traveller
etched on her float
recorded in flesh
looking across
stretches of history
eras of evolution
down avenues
of ancient memories
receding
in clouds of dust
along Paleolithic trails
somewhere
in remote Mongolia
Simon Hanson
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February 2013
HEAT WAVE IV
hips twitch
as daisy painted nails
hook down
bikini bottoms
cheek by cheek
but not too much;
unkink a strap
primp the top
to a nicety
of tease and sass –
as finale
tosses hair
into careful chaos
before she checks
with girlfriends –
their silence cold;
ice cream sweet
David Cookson
_________________________________
March 2013
San Diego de los Banos
In San Diego de los Banos there is one hotel.
Only desperate or ignorant tourists stay there.
You will not hear the Buena Vista Social Club playing under the ceiling fanned smoke of Cuban cigars.
A swayback horse rummages in a neglected town square.
In San Diego de los Banos the two room school is full of children
in clean white and maroon uniforms.
The Pharmacia shelves are stacked with generic medicines.
The Polyclinico is open seven days a week. A nurse sits on the steps sunning her long brown legs.
In San Diego de los Banos there is no broadband
no wi-fi, no signal.
The telephones sometimes work.
The therapeutic hot spring is fuera de servicio.
In San Diego de los Banos the proprietor of the recommended casa particular
has emigró a los U.S.A.
A huge black man leads me down back alleys to one that will put me up for a night.
A pig roots in the gutter outside. Bare chested boys run through the laneways after school.
In San Diego de los Banos the casa owner is also the dentist
for a town twelve kilometres away.
He cycles to and from his surgery every day.
He is paid twenty five U.S. dollars per week.
In San Diego de los Banos the electricity
goes off at seven every evening.
After dinner people drift to rocking chairs on each front veranda.
The conversation rolls up and down the lane.
In San Diego de los Banos a man walks up and down
asking his neighbours’ advice.
The girl he has come back from Havana to court is avoiding him.
It is not easy to avoid someone in San Diego de los Banos.
In San Diego de los Banos the dentist’s wife
sits next to me on the verandah.
She serves me café con leche in my rocking chair.
She translates the neighbourly repartee so that I am part of the rolling conversation.
In San Diego de los Banos she tells me
it has taken years to save for a refrigerator.
The twenty dollars per night I pay is as much as she earns each week as a teacher.
She kisses me on both cheeks and wishes me goodnight.
In San Diego de los Banos the local doctor is free
but is not trusted for difficult illnesses.
The dentist’s wife has to leave early next morning to see a buen médico in Havana.
She must take the doctor a donación: a chicken or bottle of ron.
In San Diego de los Banos, there is nothing to do, no sights to see.
No clubs, no high class restaurants, no shops for tourists.
The guide book describes it is an “entirely unremarkable town”.
Mike Hopkins
Friendly Street Poets & the State Library of SA present:
Treasures Wall, 1st Floor State Library, North Terrace
Entry is free. Please be seated by 5:25.
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in
Fashions, Fads and a Showcase of Shoes
MC: Jelena Dinic introduces Jude Aquilina and Elaine Barker
Light refreshments are provided by the State Library of SA.
Jude Aquilina’s poetry and short stories have been published in newspapers,anthologies and literary journals in Australia and abroad. Jude has been guest speaker at numerous writers’ festivals, including Adelaide Writers’Week and Canberra Spring Poetry Festival. In addition to five poetry collections, she has published work across many genres, including, but not limited to, comedy, erotica, essays, articles and women’s perspectives. Jude lives and writes in the Adelaide Hills. She works at TAFE SA’s Adelaide College for the Arts in the Professional Writing Unit. Her poems have also been published on Coriole wine labels and on shop walls. She is a member and supporter of International PEN. Jude freelances as an editor, speaker and workshop leader.
This is the first Words@Wall event at the State Library in the 2013 series.
Full program details available online at www.slsa.sa.gov.au
.
Open Mic Poetry Reading
Malcolm Reid Building, SA Writers’ Centre,
2nd Floor Atrium above Caffe Brunelli
East Rundle Street, Adelaide
_______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Judy Dally was a Junior Primary teacher for twenty years. During that time she completed an MA in Literature from Deakin University. She retired from teaching in 2000.
She has published three collections of poetry –At Sixes and Sevens, Holding Up Mirrors and Across the Gulf published by Friendly Street Poets and Wakefield Press. She co-edited FS Reader No. 20 with Jeff Kemp and FS Reader No. 36 with Louise McKenna. She has also been published in various magazines, journals and newspapers and in the last twenty five editions of the Friendly Street Reader.
Judy has been a regular at Friendly Street for twenty five years and was a member of the Friendly Street Committee for two. She was also a member of the SA Writers Centre Board for two years..
Judy is a member of the Tutti Ensemble Choir and works as a volunteer with Tutti Arts where she teaches literacy skills to young people with a disability.
She also enjoys sailing, shopping, reading, watching television, collecting stuffed animals and spending time with her husband John.
_______________________________________________________________________
Book in from 6.30 p.m. for a prompt 7 p.m. start.
Entry: $5/$6. Refreshments free inside.
Your chance to have your three minutes at the open mic. Every poem read is eligible for selection in our annual anthology. Please bring two copies of your poem and include your name and permission to publish. Read it, place it in the box and it will be be considered by our editors for publication in our anthology.
Disabled access via York Street (runs parallel and south of East Rundle St)
.
** Note change of day and venue, due to SAWC Fringe commitments **
—————
The Box Factory Community Centre
59 Regent St South, Adelaide
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Ben Mellor is in Adelaide to perform in his acclaimed show, “Anthropoetry”:
[an”thro-po´ê-tre] n. A humorous, musical, spoken word journey around the human anatomy, attempting to get the measure of modern life.
‘elegantly crafted rhymes… always engaging’ **** The Scotsman
‘a joy to listen to’ **** Broadway Baby
Ben will perform as our guest poet. He will be available to sign copies of his books and cds, which can be purchased on the night.
http://www.benmellor.net/anthropoetry/
http://www.adelaidefringe.com.au/fringetix/anthropoetry/3f090814-e980-41e9-8d0a-dcd8f6a44924
_______________________________________________________________
Book in from 6.30 p.m. for a prompt 7 p.m. start.
Entry: $5/$6. Refreshments free inside.
Your chance to have your three minutes at the open mic. Every poem read is eligible for selection in our annual anthology. Please bring two copies of your poem and include your name and permission to publish. Read it, place it in the box and it will be be considered by our editors for publication in our anthology.
The Box Factory:
http://www.adelaidecitycouncil.com/community/community-centres/box-factory-community-centre/
