FSP City Meetings

Poem of the Month – August 2025 – Gail Walker

The Poem of the Month for August 2024, selected by 2024 Anthology editors Ivan Rehorek (Avalanche) and Martha Landman, is Content Warning by Gail Walker. The commended poems are Poetry Lesson by Steve Evans and It’s vain to ask a poet to say less by Stef Rozitis.

Content Warning
Gail Walker

This poem contains – adult themes
This poem contains – nudity
This poem contains – harsh language
This poem contains – domestic violence
This poem contains – suicide ideation
This poem contains – mental health issues
This poem contains – child sexual abuse
This poem contains – rape
This poem contains – murder

Sorry there is no time left for 
This poem.… Click for more

Launch of Anthology 48 – Mimesis – and Satura Prize winning poem.

Friendly Street Anthology 48 – Mimesis, was launched on Monday, 5th Augus, 2024, at the Box Factory in Adelaide to a full house. Judge Mike Ladd, a founding member of Friendly Street Poets, a widely published poet and former producer of ABC’s Radio National programme Poetica, awarded the  Satura Prize to Helen Hutton for Going Home, a poem which addresses the insidious and socially silent crime of Domestic Violence but which is finally in the social and literary zeitgeist. Helen also won the Satura Prize last year for her poem, For Grace, in Anthology 47, Round the Bend, edited by Veronica and David Cookson.… Click for more

FSP September City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 2nd September, 2024
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

All welcome!

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet.
Free to listen.

You must be a member of FSP to submit your poems for consideration for publication in the annual anthology. Bring two printed copies of your poems with your name and contact details to submit for next year’s anthology, or submit them electronically via the form below after the session.

… Click for more

Poem of the Month – July 2024 – Helen Hutton

The Poem of the Month for July 2024, selected by 2024 Anthology editors Ivan Rehorek (Avalanche) and Martha Landman, is My grandfather’s second wife by Helen Hutton. The commended poems are A Life by Steve Evans and Hills Hippy Open Garden by David Winderlich.

My grandfather’s second wife
Helen Hutton

1972
In your biscuit-warm kitchen, lined with rose-pink tiles and flooded with sunlight, you
shaped lavender-infused dough with vitiligo hands. You streaked my nose with a line of flour
and said I looked like a Scottish Highlander. When you touched my cheek, your hands felt
warm like butter balls.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – June 2024 – Virginia Hussin

The Poem of the Month for June 2024, selected by 2024 Anthology editors Ivan Rehorek (Avalanche) and Martha Landman, is Sympathy for Iago by Virginia Hussin. The commended poems are How To Meet A Deadline by Sue O’Brien and Ice Man by David Harris.

Sympathy for Iago
Virginia Hussin

Our year 12 English teacher, Mrs Candy
Is most perplexed – one could say unsettled
Because so many of us feel sorry for Iago.
Iago is supposed to be the villain

But we variously argue
That he was working-class
That the world was stacked against him
That he didn’t have the advantages
In life that for example, Cassio had
Let alone the handsome Othello
Who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth

What generation were we to be saying these things?… Click for more

Poem of the Month – April 2024 – Bruce Greenhalgh

The Poem of the Month for April 2024, selected by 2024 Anthology editors Ivan Rehorek (Avalanche) and Martha Landman, is Say Cheese by Bruce Greenhalgh. The commended poems are Suddenly the Sky by Margaret Dingle and The Famous Last words of the Male Driver by Beth Baillie.

Say Cheese
Bruce Greenhalgh

In my younger years
I wanted to be a cheese.
I wasn’t aiming high.
I wasn’t ‘getting ahead of myself’.
I wasn’t thinking Camembert or Brie,
more your Cracker Barrel or tasty cheddar,
even processed cheese sandwich slices would do.

In time though, I learnt I wasn’t cut out to be a cheese,
and that was disappointing.… Click for more

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