Events

The Poem of the Month for February 2026, selected by 2026 Anthology editors Elizabeth Salna and Erica Jolly, is Semaphore Jetty by Fred Willett. The commended poems are Escape by Nigel Ford, Some thoughts of somebody who hasn’t sailed solo around the world by Bruce Greenhalgh, The Doc Said by Susan O’Brien and Final crossing by Valerie Volk.

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Semaphore Jetty
Fred Willett

Mum died
She’d gone years before, of course
An empty husk
A house long deserted. No one inside

We took her ashes to Semaphore Jetty on a crystal day
Ice wind. Kites flying
Kids on the carousel
And let her go gently into the turtle water
To start her next journey

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Escape
Nigel Ford

With the staccato fire of the machine guns overhead
and the rumbling of heavy artillery in the distance
I bunker down prepared to ride out the storm
as flashes of brilliant light blind me through my window
but despite this cacophony of violence surrounding me
far removed from the company of family in our old home
I am at peace with the situation I find myself in
My fingers kneading the armrests of my recliner
I listen to the rain on the tin roof of my new house
the music of my own song
an anthem to new found independence
and escape from their quarrels

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Some thoughts of somebody who hasn’t sailed solo around the world
Bruce Greenhalgh

I could fly to Rome;
I won’t.… Click for more

The Poem of the Month for December 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is North Yelta by Steve Evans. The commended poems are Jacaranda, Advent’s flower by Dawn Colsey, Big-hearted  Joe by Elizabeth Salna and Slammed by Jill Wherry.

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North Yelta
Steve Evans

Before you wake
I sit at the table in the derelict house
that was your home
and watch the grey feathered sky.

If we could dismantle it,
we would take away the bed
on which you sleep a last time,
that bed you lay on first at ten
and have brought me to
at thirty five.… Click for more

The Poem of the Month for November 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is gratis is not a liveable wage by Geoff Aitken. The commended poems are 15 seconds by Mandy McPeake, Yellow Moon by Maxine Platt and Semaphore 2025 by Mike Ladd.

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gratis is not a liveable wage
Geoff Aitken

he was unable to discuss
additional conditions
over the phone.

did say
caterers would be paid

so too the emcee.

the equipment
leased

and the premises
hired

while he as organiser
warranted a token fee.

my reputation
of course, acknowledged

and writing promoted,
if i agreed to terms.… Click for more

The Poem of the Month for October 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is Penguin Blood by Kathryn von Bergen. The commended poems are Mathematician’s Oath to the Infinite by Claudia Raddatz, Half Light by Fred Willet and Pebble Hunt at Aldinga Beach by Martha Landman.

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Penguin Blood
Kathryn von Bergen

Now
late in my life,
a discovery
resonant with wonder,
recalibrating my sense of self:

1940 –
University of Adelaide
Kerr, Pfeiffer, Dutton, Harris
poets avant-garde
birthing Angry Penguins
from ashes of Phoenix –
the journal, a movement
in those heady days
of Modernism.… Click for more