Friendly Street Poets

Friendly Street Poets were saddened to hear of the death of respected member, former board member, fine poet and true gentleman John Pfitzner.

John was at the height of his poetic powers. He only started writing poetry five years ago. Yet he had a short collection, ‘Fence Music’, published in Friendly Street New Poets 17, and had received the great accolade of having his poem “Pointless” selected in Best Australian Poems 2012.

He will be greatly missed by his many friends in the Adelaide poetry world. Our deepest sympathy to his family.

The funeral is to be held at Immanuel College, 32 Morphett Road, Novar Gardens, SA 5040 on Wednesday 6th February 2013 at 11am and then later at Centennial Park.

NOTE: Our Tuesday February 5th 2012 meeting will include the opportunity for members to read John’s poetry or poems about John, as a special tribute to him.

At the Friendly Street Poets’ Annual General Meeting, held on Thursday 22nd November, the following members were nominated for the board of management. There being exactly eight nominations, all nominees were declared duly elected as board members.

• Avalanche (Ivan Rehorek)
• Jill Gower
• Mike Hopkins
• Glen Johns
• Bonnie McGough
• Louise Nicholas
• Suzanne Reece
• Paul Wilkins

The board members are there to serve you. If you have any concerns, issues, ideas or want to become more involved in your organisation, or want to contribute in any way, feel free to talk to any of the above.

Poet Kalicharan Nigel Dey is the first Friendly Street trainee to successfully complete his training at comunity radio station, Radio Adelaide 101.5FM. He is participating in ‘Launch Pad’, which features new broadcasters. You might like to tune in and listen to his exciting series of shows. There are four shows planned.

• Friday 16th January 3 – 3.30pm is entitled ‘The Launch Pad Beach party’ Listeners are invited to take a trip back to the sleepy shores of the sixties. You can dance, reflect or drive to the beach listening to the joyful summery sounds of both famous and obscure musicians of yestercentury. Every item, including the poetry, is a celebration of summer.

• Friday 23rd January, 3 – 3.30pm is entitled ‘This love of mine’

• Friday 20th February, 3 – 3.30pm is entitled ‘Kalicharan: Mysterious Poetic Phenomenon’

• Friday 27th February, 3 – 3.30pm is entitled ‘Alternative Ideas’

We received fifteen entries in the New Poets 14 competition. They have all been delivered to the Judge. We expect to announce the winner on Tuesday 4th November 2008.

Once again we are looking for two people interested in becoming editors for the next Reader. You will be required to attend all meetings for the year and listen to the poems read (December 2008 — November 2009). You will be asked to select the poems for the Reader, maintaining the high quality standards of past books. Then, you will work with the publishing team to create the book and launch it. Also, you select poets for profiles in Artstate and our web site gallery. At the end of your term you select six promising poets for our mentoring program.

Please send a letter explaining how you would go about the role of selection and why you think you could do the job. We want you to tell the Board what qualities, skills and abilities you could bring to the required tasks. You can include a brief CV to support your application.

Any member of the Friendly Street membership community can apply and we urge all members to consider this offer seriously. Please send applications in hard copy to:

The Convenor
Friendly Street Poets Inc.
PO Box 43, Rundle Mall SA 5000.

Applications must be received by 27th October 2008 so a decision can be made by the Board on 29th October.

The successful applicants will be announced at the November meeting, to begin their job in December.

After four years of service to Friendly Street Poets Inc. as Board member, Treasurer and Convenor, Gaetano Aiello has resigned, much to the relief of his wife Jane. Gaetano will continue to undertake some Treasurer duties until we can find someone to takeover. He will send update reports to Board each month but needs a rest from other Board commitments, so we are desperately seeking a trainee Treasurer. Anyone interested in taking on this role should contact us as soon as possible.

The newly expanded Board elected Maggie Emmett to fill the role of Convenor.  

The Board now consists of the following people:

Maggie Emmett
Courtney Black
Nigel Dey
Adam Klimkiewicz
Mark C. Martin
Ivan Rehorek
Alice Sladdin
Colleen Sweeney
Kerryn Tredrea
Sarah Wauchope

Belinda Broughton (left) and judge Jacqueline Clarke

Featured below is the winning poem by Belinda Broughton.

The Weeping and the Wailing

After Catullus’ Poem 3

Granted it was a very sweet thing—the little finch
she loved so much—hopping around like a wind-up toy
and twittering in her ear. And it would settle in her lap
as if it really loved her. Certainly it trusted her.

It’s dead. That’s sad don’t you think? I mean
it’s always sad when something so sparkling with life
lies in your hand as still as a corpse, because it is a corpse,
a delicate thing on its one-way trip to nothingness.

But the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth,
she’s cried more tears than the size of the bird,
out of all proportion. But then, who am I to say,
hard-hearted bastard that I am; all I care about

is how red and swollen her beautiful eyes are.
There, there, Darling, cry your tears on my shoulder;
let them out; be done with it.
Now, come to bed.

Gaetano and judge Jacqueline Clarke

Gaetano Aiello receives a high commendation for his entry into the Roman poetry competiton.

Kevin Roberts from Canada reads to a rapt audience at Friendly Street on Tuesday night.

Indigo dazzled everyone with her performance at Friendly Street on Tuesday night.