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

FSP October City Meeting and Open Mic

Monday, 10th October, 2022
from 6:00pm

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

$5 to read. 3 minutes per poet.

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 as required.

… Click for more

Viral Lines: your pandemic life in poetry and pictures

Saturday, 17th Sept, 2022
10:00am – 4:00pm

The OpenDoor Uniting Church
1 Collingwood Street, Goolwa

$30 / $25 concession includes morning tea.

Discover how to capture love, loss and life during COVID, combining poetic life writing and drawings / photos.

Satura Poetry Prize Winner, Maria Vouis and Artist / Poet, Julia Wakefield will inspire your inner storyteller with engaging exercises aimed to distill your pandemic memories.

You will take home a creative work that expresses YOUR COVID experience.

Suitable for teachers’ PD & Certificates provided.

Contact: Maria at 0407 354 784.

Supported by SPIN, FSP and the Government of South Australia: SA Health.

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

2022 Satura and Nova Prizes

Editors Louise Nicholas and Judy Dally launched FSP Anthology 46 at the August 2022 City meeting at the Box Factory. Over the past year, they worked tirelessly together to select each Poem of the Month and a collection of poems chosen from the monthly readings. The resultant anthology is a beautiful collection, titled Something to Say … taken from a poem by the same name by Avalanche.

Award-winning poet, Jude Aquilina judged the Satura Prize (best poem in the anthology) and Nova Prize (best poem by a poet published for the first time in an anthology) and selected Highly Commended awards for each category.… 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

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