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.

March Poem of the Month

The Poem of the Month for March, selected by Anthology editors, Veronica Cookson and Lindy Warrell, is Whassup Mozart? by Gordon McPherson. The Commended Poem is I am not your lover by Alison Clifton.

Whassup Mozart? by Gordon McPherson

How I wonder
you holy grailers,
galactic sailors,
and serenaders
of space time,
blinking and hoodwinking,
through the cosmos,
the universal BIOS,

How I wonder
you disco glitzes
when you power up
your Ritzes
and your ditzy minuets
and jet those rays
around and down
and blitz
the frowning ground,
starfound,
with your rainbow outfits,

How I wonder
you tinsels,
when you sprinkle
your ticker tape parade
on the stellar freeways,
those ballets
and screenplays
of technicolour highs
and ballroomeyes,
when your cries
sing like millions
of magic flute sighs
in the quicksilver hordes
aboard the night sky,

How I wonder
you Cosi Fan sparklers,
in the rococo thunder
of your torn asunder
starbrights,
kinking the gravity fields
and sinking your far heights
in the light’s plunder,

How I wonder
you Big Bang strays,
you supernova front pages,
you red shift tearaways,
and how I ponder
you Mozart DJ’s,
what you wanderers
what you twinklers
really,
really are.… Click for more

February Poem of the Month

The February Poem of the Month, selected by Anthology editors, Veronica Cookson and Lindy Warrell, is The Man Who Walked by Fred Willett.

Here is Fred’s poem:

THE MAN WHO WALKED by F J Willett

His days were bleak and grim and gray.
His mood was dark and fell and fey.

Her hair was black. Her raven hair
That framed her face and haughty stare.

He walked alone without a hope.
He never saw her, never spoke.

He walked across the village square.
He passed the woman standing there.

She had no smile for him that day,
No smile to light his shadowed way.… Click for more

Poems of the Month: December 2017

Here are the Poems of the Month for November 2017, as selected by Anthology Editors, Ros Schulz and Karl Cameron-Jackson. Congratulations to Keith MacNider and Maria Vouis.

THE RISE by Keith MacNider

Where do I meet you now that you have gone away?
Is it that you have eloped with the breeze, the first
canter across the plains of your beginning, or the debris
of twisted desires, the suffering in silence when the hands
of abusers made your body theirs and hope lay in words
you wouldn’t have chosen yet which found you, reshaping
calling to you the beauty that always seemed in your eyes
the way morning mists hinted at surprise?… Click for more

Poems of the Month: November 2017

Here are the Poems of the Month for November 2017, as selected by Anthology Editors, Ros Schulz and Karl Cameron-Jackson. Congratulations to David Harris and Elaine Barker.

THE JAGUAR’S PAW by Elaine Barker
(Tikal, Guatemala)

It’s a symbol placed at eye level
and scratched deep into stone
at the base of a high wall
many centuries ago.
You can trace the shape
of the pad and each claw
of the feared and sacred jaguar
although moss like a pelt
and as green as jade
has spread to blur its outline.
You still sense the energy,
the feline grace
and mythic power
and although you have your photo
taken quickly in passing
that image reaches out
to puncture your thoughts,
become etched into your mind.… Click for more

October Poems of the Month

Congratulations to October’s (tied) Poems of the Month, as selected by Anthology Editors, Ros Schulz and Karl Cameron-Jackson: The Handover by Sharon Foulkes and Lorne in B Flat by David Cookson.

Click here to read all this year’s Poems of the Month.

 

The Handover by Sharon Foulkes

Friday at sunset,
and the junction diner churns with the weekend influx.

The nearly-there-yet,
grabbing a snack for bribing the kids into silence, and
steeling themselves for the dazzle and blur that’s ahead.

The finally-away,
breathing relief at temporary escape from the concrete, and
filling the fidgeting horde in the hope that they’ll sleep.… Click for more

2017 Poems of the Month now on-line

Each month the current Anthology Editors select a Poem of the Month, chosen from those submitted at the FSP Open Mic events. The Poems of the Month for 2017, selected by Ros Schulz and Karl Cameron-Jackson, are now (mostly!) available for you to read on-line. Click here to read them all so far or click on the individual links below.

 

February: Dear Poem by Bruce Greenhalgh
March: A Memorable Fancy by Gordon McPherson
April: Sonnet for a Coin-Eyed Fish by Maria Vouis
May: Mother and Daughter Collect Stones by Belinda Broughton
June (a tie): A Modern Father’s Advice by Reginald Thomas / cutting by rob walker
July: Lake Albert Swoons by Karl Cameron-Jackson
August: The Body Mother Made Me by Maria Vouis
September (a tie): Vincent in Waikerie by Gordon McPherson / Welsh Love Spoon by Veronica Cookson
October (a tie): The Handover by Sharon Foulkes / Lorne in B Flat by David Cookson

 

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