The Adelaide based poetry group Friendly Street Poets has long been a strong influence on writers here in South Australia. They hold regular monthly readings in Adelaide. In more recent years they have ventured out into suburban venues and continue to grow in both influence and importance. The meetings are usually open mike reading opportunities for poets and often feature a guest poet who is invited to a longer reading of poems. The open mike readings usually have a time limit of about 3 minutes.

Over the last few years the group is also venturing out into country areas. Two years ago I attended the inaugural meeting here in my home town of Murray Bridge. I particularly appreciated having only a 5 minute drive to the venue on a pleasant Sunday afternoon. Normally I can’t attend the meetings in Adelaide due to other commitments on the regular nights on which they are held.

On that occasion I wasn’t brave enough to take along any of my poems for reading, and last year I had another commitment. Two weeks ago, however, I managed to attend – and read two of my poems. It felt good – and I enjoyed the rest of the poetry read during the afternoon. The poems ranged from the hilarious to the deeply serious through to the cheekily risqué. Reading one’s poems during the open mike sessions usually allows one to contribute the poems read for consideration in the annual anthology.

Links:

• Friendly Street Poets – click to view their website which has details of meeting times and venues as well as membership, publications and plenty of other information.