Poem of the Month – October 2025 – Kathryn von Bergen

The Poem of the Month for October 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is Penguin Blood by Kathryn von Bergen. The commended poems are Mathematician’s Oath to the Infinite by Claudia Raddatz, Half Light by Fred Willet and Pebble Hunt at Aldinga Beach by Martha Landman.

Penguin Blood
Kathryn von Bergen

Now
late in my life,
a discovery
resonant with wonder,
recalibrating my sense of self:

1940 –
University of Adelaide
Kerr, Pfeiffer, Dutton, Harris
poets avant-garde
birthing Angry Penguins
from ashes of Phoenix –
the journal, a movement
in those heady days
of Modernism.… Click for more

FSP December City Meeting – Launch of Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street and Open Mic

Friday, 5th December, 2025
Doors open at 6:00pm for 6:15pm start

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

To celebrate the first 50 years of FSP, we are launching:
Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street

This is an important history of one of the South Australia’s cultural landmarks (us). Supported by a grant from CreateSA, we can sell it to members for $5.00 (one copy each). Each of our 50 contributors will be acknowledged with the presentation of a free copy of this special publication.

A more elaborate second edition with colour and updates about the Love In and other FSP 50th Anniversary events will come out in the new year.… Click for more

Last chance reminder for tickets to FSP 50th Anniversary Dinner!

If you want to attend the Anniversary Dinner celebrating FSP’s very first meeting on the actual anniversary date of the 11th of the 11th, you MUST PURCHASE your ticket(s) BEFORE Sunday midnight. Tickets are selling fast and there are only a few left.

Tuesday 11 November 2025
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Coopers Alehouse
316 Pulteney Street, Adelaide, SA 5000

$46 for 2-course meal
Click here to book at trybooking

Friendly Street Poets invite you to our 50th Anniversary Dinner!

Each ticket includes a two-course meal.
The bar will be staffed so you can buy your drinks throughout the event.

Doors open at 6pm for pre-dinner drinks and catch-up conversations.… Click for more

Richard Tipping book launch: Headlines to the Heart

Wednesday 12 November 2025
6:00pm for 7:00pm start

Ern Malley
137 Magill Road, Stepney, SA 5067

Richard Tipping, co-founder of Friendly Street Poets in 1975, is in Adelaide for the 50th Anniversary of FSP and has brought his latest book of poetry, Headlines to the Heart, for his South Australian launch. 

Headlines to the Heart is the poet’s own selection of the most memorable poems from half a century of deeply-felt living. Humorous, erotic, perceptive and full of spoken ideas which stick in the mind, Tipping’s poetry has been widely published and anthologised, including The New Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry edited by John Kinsella, The Penguin Book of Modern Australian Poetry edited by Phillip Mead and John Tranter, and the New Oxford Book of Australian Verse edited by Les Murray.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – September 2025 – Elaine Barker

The Poem of the Month for September 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is Installation in Cast Iron by Elaine Barker. The commended poems are Performance by Veronica Cookson, Food Writer by Leon Ferrante and Between the River and the Sea by Alan Branford.

Installation in Cast Iron
Elaine Barker

Jonnie Dady Standing Work, no.3, 2008

It’s unsettling to see you planted here
free standing, perhaps abandoned,
your three legs lanky and rising
roughcast, surrounded by low bushes,
a grassy plot, a jacaranda grove.

It’s a quiet spot with music floating down
from the Conservatorium close by –
Constantin Shamray perhaps, rehearsing
Rachmaninov for the concert tonight.… Click for more

Friendly Street Poets 50th Anniversary Dinner

Tuesday 11 November 2025
6:00 pm – 10:00 pm

Coopers Alehouse
316 Pulteney Street, Adelaide, SA 5000

$46 for 2-course meal
Click here to book at trybooking

Friendly Street Poets invite you to our 50th Anniversary Dinner!

Each ticket includes a two-course meal.
The bar will be staffed so you can buy your drinks throughout the event.

Doors open at 6pm for pre-dinner drinks and catch-up conversations.

We ask that people arrive to find a seat from 6pm. Some seats will be allocated for Special Guests and those with mobility issues, but everyone can choose to sit with friends. If you have mobility issues, please let us know and we will allocate your seating.… Click for more

+ More