2016

FSP at Unley Town Hall & Library, Saturday 17th September

Friendly Street Poets_Unley Poster2016

FSP comes to Unley Libraries to host guest poets and offer local writers time in the spotlight. Guest readers include Rob Walker, Kerry Harte, Lindsay McLeod, and Judy Dally with MC, Kalicharan Nigel Dey.

Poets of Unley and beyond, we invite you to read and risk publication. Each poet will have three minutes to present during the open mic. Please bring two copies of your poems to be considered for publication in the Friendly Street Poets’ annual anthology.

Saturday 17 September, 1.30 – 4 pm, Unley Town Hall, Oxford Terrace, Unley

Free, no bookings required. Light refreshments provided.

… Click for more

Kate Deller-Evans

Kate Deller-Evans 1

With much sadness, we report our inspirational colleague and friend, Kate Deller-Evans, died peacefully on the 6th August 2016 from the consequences of breast cancer. Kate was a marvellous poet, writing with a high level of craft, wit and perceptive insight about the things that matter to our lives, no matter how small or large. She had an extensive involvement in FSP as well as the broader Adelaide writing scene, as a poet, editor, historian, and mentor. She published several books of poetry, including FSP New Poets Seven: Travelling with Bligh  and, with her husband, Steve Evans, wrote the definitive history of Friendly Street Poets, Best of Friends: the first thirty years of the Friendly Street Poets. … Click for more

Poem of the Month for May: “Sermon on Dogma” by Kalicharan Nigel Dey

As selected by the anthology editors, David Harris and Edie Eicas from FSP readings in May, 2016.

Nigel Kalicharan Dey: editor, 2014

SERMON ON DOGMA by Kalicharan Nigel Dey

There I was, sitting on a pew in church,
Attentively listening to Father John Birch.
The Reverend quoted reverently:
“None comes to the Father except through me.”
An exegesis followed with passion and fire:
“Either these words are true or Jesus was a liar.”

“Hold on!” I thought, “There’s a third possible conjecture:
The gospels could contain elements of fiction.”
Father John Birch is an authority on scripture
But like most authorities he has an affliction.

It’s called dogma – an epidemic mental disease
Preventing consideration of all possibilities.… Click for more

FSP Featured Poets @ The Halifax Cafe in June: Jules Leigh Koch & gareth roi jones

jlk grj bw1

FSP Featured Poets Series presents two of Adelaide’s most beguiling poets: Jules Leigh Koch and gareth roi jones.

6:00 – 7:00 pm; Wednesday 29th June 2016, at The Halifax Cafe, 187 Halifax Street, Adelaide.

Jules Leigh Koch has published four collections of poetry and one chapbook, most recently Stripping Wallpaper from the Sky (Interactive Press, 2015), and has received two SA Literature Grants (2008; 2011). He is one of the poets in the public art works Signs of Life  (Bowen Street, Adelaide) and the Shop 6 Tram Art project (Glenelg tram line). He also has worked as a mentor with writers from the Richard Llewellyn Arts and Disability Trust.… Click for more

Nova Prize 2016: “in the wake of e e cummings” by bruce greenhalgh

The Nova Prize is awarded by the Anthology editors to the best poem by a poet who has not been previously published in an FSP anthology. This year’s winner is in the wake of e e cummings by bruce greenhalgh.

in the wake of e e cummings by bruce greenhalgh

what no punctuation he cried
without an exclamation mark
without quotation marks
hovering over his words

but words remain
and fall like rain
from grey verbose clouds
onto grey receptive roads
at first the worddrops make
distinct marks
then patterns
then spreading like gossip
they join together
and whole discussions tumble along gutters

and dive noisily
into the mouths of drains

while i’m…
i’m feeling lower case
splashing iambic feet through prolix puddles

as conversation forms on cooling windows
i peer into a distance obscured
by the mists of cliché
and feeling a non sequitur coming on
i take a line break
to consider the meteorology of enjambment
the syntax of clouds
full stop

+ More