Poem of the month

Each month the two FSP editors select a poem, from those read throughout that month, as the poem of the month. A laminated copy of the poem is awarded to the poet at the next FSP City meeting. This is peer recognition of a poem of high quality.

Poem of the Month – November 2022 – Elaine Barker

The Poem of the Month for November 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is Tearaway by Elaine Barker. The commended poems for November are Overture by David Harris and Figs for Cockatoos by Mandy Toczek McPeake.

Tearaway
Elaine Barker

He arrived hugger-mugger into life
and feet first. What a balls-up,
said the doctor but all was well.
He was a rumble-tumble baby,
a harum-scarum toddler
who ran hurry-scurry
before he learnt to walk.
He turned into a tearaway kid
whose mother said quick-sticks
before anything would be done.
He ran riot as a teenager,
collected odds and sods
in his mishmash of a room
and was always losing things
in a slipshod kind of way.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – October 2022 – Rory Harris

The Poem of the Month for October 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is ancestors by Rory Harris. The commended poems for October are Torbay (a phonetic acrostic) by Sharon Foulkes and In Dogs we Trust by Peter Meech.

ancestors
Rory Harris

My wife
will never

wash you
so, how many hands

will miss
this opportunity

bathing you
seal slick

glistening
perfumed body

as your grandmother’s
garden still throws

colour into a suburban
universe of scent

Torbay (a phonetic acrostic)
Sharon Foulkes

Timeless twitter and tick-tick
in tall timbers that tower over
tangled tendrils and twisted trunks in tatters;

The orison
of an ornithological chorus,
always at some ornery hour;

A barrow-full of bottlebrush in bloom
bounced through a ballet of butterflies
beyond the bend;

Ancient terrain tamed into acreage:
black-face graze while snakes predate –
and then again, rain.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – September 2022 – Margaret Fensom

The Poem of the Month for September 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is Dreams of the 60s (or whenever) by Margaret Fensom. The commended poems for September are musings from the death bed: exile by Phil Saunders and Road Moment by Valerie Volk.

Dreams of the 60s (or whenever)
Margaret Fensom

Hovering somewhere between
the imperfect perfect housewife
exploited by commercial TV –
The germs under the rim
of your toilet bowl
will come out and lay you low –
and a manqué flower child,
I contemplate the carbon
sequestered on the bottom of my saucepans –
should I still be burning gas?… Click for more

Poem of the Month – August 2022 – Inez Marrasso

The Poem of the Month for August 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is Anorexic Sexy by Inez Marrasso. The commended poems for August are For the Common Waspish Good by Cary Hamlyn and Paper Boat by Jules Leigh Koch.

Anorexic Sexy
Inez Marrasso

Hunched over a coffee table, turning pages.
I want to be framed like these girls in magazines:
sexy long hair, picture perfect waist.
I want to turn my face into a sonnet:
eyes, for the sun, white teeth, rose cheeks.

I want to weigh forty-one kilos, sport an overt ribcage,
dressed in Victorian lace.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – July 2022 – Louise Nicholas

The Poem of the Month for July 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is Workshop by Louise Nicholas. The commended poems for July are symmetry by Geoff Atkin and Liquid Golden Days by Fred Willet.

Workshop
Louise Nicholas

This isn’t the room where TS Eliot watched the women
come and go as they brought him tea, the post, a sheaf
of readers’ reports. It isn’t the room from which he launched
Hughes and Plath, stamped out Orwell like a spot fire
in dry grass. Nor is the roof above this room the one
on which he took his turn on fire watch during the Blitz,
the red glow of a Woodbine keeping pace with his footsteps
back and forth.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – June 2022 – Maria Vouis

The Poem of the Month for June 2022, selected by 2022 Anthology Editors, Veronica and David Cookson, is Greece – A Quintet by Maria Vouis. The commended poems for June are Life by Martin Christmas and Song of the Turbines by Stef Rozitis.

Greece – A Quintet
Maria Vouis

jade, turquoise, lapis
ganglia of trembling light
the ocean of Greece

sap of cypress pine
redolent glue on fingers
scent travels with me

goat-bell sonata
a jingling scale, up, then down
the clef of Mount Athos

a clutch of nuns chant
vespers in lengthening light
Saint Nicholaos

twist of olive trees
ancient clan at day’s dissolve
twine roots, hum language

Life
Martin Christmas

What is Life?… Click for more

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