2023

FSP August 2023 City Meeting – Open Mic and announcing winners of the New Poets and Single Poet competitions

Monday, 7th August, 2023
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet

To begin this meeting, the winners of the New Poets 24 and the Single Poet 2023 competitions will be announced by the respective judges.

Add your name to the reading list on the night if you want a turn at the mic. Bring two printed copies of your poems with your name and contact details if you want them considered for next year’s anthology, or submit them electronically via the form below after the session.

The meeting will be held under current COVID-19 safety plans as required.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – June 2023 – Jules Leigh Koch

The Poem of the Month for June 2023, selected by 2023 Anthology Editors, Maria Vouis and Rob Ferris, is 5.45am Sydney by Jules Leigh Koch. The commended poems for June are unpredicted by Geoff Aitken, Blackbird by Martha Landman  and The Baby Locket by Cary Hamlyn.

5.45am Sydney
Jules Leigh Koch

at an intersection
a few wax-work figures
                                    wait
while traffic-lights juggle three
coloured balls
                       in slow motion

the short life span of dawn
is emptying out
all about me
yet
            it’s not a new day

for the homeless
queueing outside
the Salvos’ soup kitchen

in an alleyway
where the twisted body of sunlight

is climbing a fire escape
one step
                       at a time

I put the space-junk of my thoughts
                                                on pause
and as I drive through the fault-line
of the city

another pedestrian is swallowed
by the subway

unpredicted
Geoff Aitken

it fell today

the idea

that the ocean
was just a cloud

shaking out
its wrinkles

in late rain.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – May 2033 – Jacqui Merckenschlager

The Poem of the Month for May 2023, selected by 2023 Anthology Editors, Maria Vouis and Rob Ferris, is This Empty Space by Jacqui Merckenschlager. The commended poems for May are Lost for Words by Virgil Concalves, Old Lady on the Cliff by Pat Lee  and Sister (excerpt) by Rory Harris.

This Empty Space
Jacqui Merckenschlager

Afterwards, after the weeping, the remembering,
love and laughter trickled into the void.
This empty space was flooded
by family and friends
and a sunshower sparkled on the wattles.

Afterwards they all went back to distant places,
silence and emptiness slipped through cracks
and hid amongst his clothes
and lurked between his books and tools,
while rosellas sipped nectar from the bluegums.… Click for more

FSP July City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 3rd July, 2023
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet

Add your name to the reading list on the night if you want a turn at the mic. Bring two printed copies of your poems with your name and contact details if you want them considered for next year’s anthology, or submit them electronically via the form below after the session.

The meeting will be held under current COVID-19 safety plans as required.

… Click for more

Haiku workshop with Julia Wakefield Houghton

Seaford Meeting Room, Seaford Library
Grand Blvd, Seaford SA 5169

Saturday, 24 June 2023
10:00 AM to 12:30 PM

The haiku is so much more than a 5-7-5 syllable three-line poem – in fact it can be a lot less as well! What is most important is that elusive ‘aha’ moment. Join Julia in exploring the evolution of the Japanese form and discover the best of English language haiku; then try some exercises that will help you to create your own unique haiku.

Julia is the convenor of the Bindii Japanese Poetry Forms Group, which is based in Adelaide. She is a published prize-winning poet who has been attempting to write haiku for the past 15 years. … Click for more

FSP June City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 5th June, 2023
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet

Add your name to the reading list on the night if you want a turn at the mic. Bring two printed copies of your poems with your name and contact details if you want them considered for next year’s anthology, or submit them electronically via the form below after the session.

The meeting will be held under current COVID-19 safety plans as required.

… Click for more
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