Events

Getting out and about with Friendly Street Poets

FSP 2024 Annual General Meeting and April Open Mic

Monday 8 April 2024
6:15pm

The Box factory
59 Regent Street, Adelaide

This month’s meeting will begin with our 2024 AGM. You must be a current financial member of FSP to take part in the AGM. There are openings for positions on the Management Committee. If you would like to nominate, follow the instructions on the agenda or send us a message via this link:
Nominate for Committee. If you are unable to attend the AGM but would like to vote via a proxy, please nominate your proxy via a message at this link: Proxy nomination.

Click here to download the AGM Agenda.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – December 2023 – Valerie Volk

The Poem of the Month for December 2023, selected by 2023 Anthology Editors, Maria Vouis and Rob Ferris, is Lot 22 by Valerie Volk. The commended poems for December are In Worrying Times by Elaine Barker, strings by phil saunders and Akin (excerpt) by Robbie Lennard.

Lot 22
Valerie Volk

Impersonal, the auctioneer’s drone.
Small square wooden case. Unusual.
An apathetic crowd. My pang of guilt,
in spite of family pressure, voice of reason.
Time to downsize, get rid of stuff.

But this. I should have kept it.
Made by a father’s loving hand.
I hear his accent, still …
A case for you, for school.… Click for more

FSP March 2024 City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 4th March, 2024
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet

All welcome!

Add your name to the reading list on the night if you want a turn at the mic. If you are a member of FSP, 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 if required.

… Click for more

FSP February 2024 City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 5th February, 2024
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet

This is our first city open mic meeting for 2024! Welcome back!!

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 if required.

… Click for more

Poem of the Month – November 2023 – Geoff Johnson

The Poem of the Month for November 2023, selected by 2023 Anthology Editors, Maria Vouis and Rob Ferris, is All Saints by Geoff Johnson. The commended poems for November are Love in Triplets by Erica Jolly, After the Poem by Gail Walker and Spur-winged Plovers by Murray Alfredson.

All Saints
Geoff Johnson

Somehow the teachings have settled
maybe scattered
’cross the pavements of their minds
something of the living impulse
stirred in their hearts.

A sound not suppressed
feathered in the wind
rattling
with ghosts in the night.

They’ve buried their hurts
not knowing where to find them
unearthing what they claim
as their own.… Click for more

Edward’s Crossing Writers – Poem of the Month

In November, Nigel Ford and Rob Ferris attended the annual meeting of the Edward’s Crossing Writers group, a regional FSP group based in Murray Bridge (originally called “Edward’s Crossing” in the 19 century). The meeting included an Open Mic from which the 2023 Anthology Editors, Rob Ferris and Maria Vouis, selected a Poem of the Month, Men Of Yemen by Max Merckenschlager and three commended poems: Flinders Ranges – 2009 by Elizabeth Bell; Unravelled by Di Walton and Music of the Earth by Lynette Zander. Congratulations!

Men Of Yemen
Max Merckenschlager

Ali the sportsmaster and school disciplinarian
took my hand in his
and lead me unselfconsciously
to where I’d sought directions.… Click for more

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