Friendly Street Poets

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November Poem of the Month: Lindy Warrell

The Tourist by Lindy Warrell

It's not my country… 
          this jeweled isle of caparisoned elephants
           and twirling dancers chanting and
            torch throwing in dazzling costumes 
             over pure white cloth 
              to a million torches and drums
               thrumming in veneration.
                                    Buddhist spectacle surround sound.
 
It's not my country…
          where obeisance to gods
           and vows are performed
            in coconut frond palaces
             woven for the divine when
              a priest trans vests to dance
               in silken sari and trance. He is the Goddess.
                                     Cries of joy and rupees adorn Her sacred hem.
 
It's not my country…
          where drunken tourists
           lounge near-naked in hotel luxury
            and palm-lined beaches
             wander unheeding in
              paddy fields people call home
               where buffalo graze and children play.
… Click for more

September Poem of the Month by Rob Ferris

Guerillas by Rob Ferris

Still camouflaged from the air
the guerrillas are dead in a glade.
Birds and conservative creatures
diminish them.
In cocoons of dappled cloth
their bodies pupate backwards
while images crawl away
alive on a cameraman’s back.

In the forest
they fade by fragmentation
their flesh maintaining 
sun drenched birds
rehearsing siren 
trumpet calls:
the music of
historical necessity
that placed them
in this shade.

Ideas swarm and die like bees,
steel wobbles and rushes
through leaves.
Fruit of revolutionary change
falls and dries
in the sun.
In villages, men’s mothers
lie awake
and make them brothers.

Erica Jolly‘s new blog site…

Long-time member of FSP Erica Jolly has set up her own blog. This is what she says about it:

“Poets cross boundaries all the time. I have set up a blog – Sciences and Humanities – on which I put items that, in one way or another, make the connections we need to have across disciplines. The times of the separation of the sciences from the humanities unfortunately are not over.

My blog, given my inadequacy with machinery, might not be the most effective and I’m told people won’t look at it if it goes beyond sound bites – and it does.  … Click for more

FSP September City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 2nd September, 2019
6:00 – 9:30pm.

The Box Factory
59 Regent Street, Adelaide.

Bring along your poems to read or just come and listen to a diverse range of poetry. Remember, 3 minutes maximum mic time per reader to make sure everyone gets a go and has an audience.

Sign-in from 6:00pm for a start around 6:20pm. Second session starts around 7:30pm.

If you want your poem to be considered for this year’s anthology, you must be a member of FSP (you can join on the night). Bring along two printed copies of your poem with all your contact details on them for submission.… Click for more

Poems of the Month

Each month, the FSP Anthology editors, Valerie Volk and Nigel Ford, select a featured poem from those submitted at FSP readings. Here are the Poems of the Month so far for 2019. Congratulations to Belinda Broughton (February), Steve Evans (March), Jules Leigh Koch (May), Elaine Barker (June), Pat Lee (July) and David Cookson (August). Scroll down to read the poems.

Not Knowing Belinda Broughton (February)

In a hammock under a wide sky,
the sun has warmed my slow blood.
The trees above nod when I move.
A dandelion arrives, drifts, 
ambles on the delicate breath of air
—this way, that, exits sky left.… Click for more

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