What Is the Poems of the Month Feature on the Friendly Street Poets Website?

Poems of the Month is a recurring feature on friendlystreetpoets.org.au that highlights recently selected poems and their authors. Each monthly post names two featured poems, the people who selected them, and a set of commended poems, so readers can see both the top picks and a wider sample of current work from the Adelaide poetry community.

What each Poems of the Month post contains

A typical entry follows a consistent structure:

• Month and year in the heading, for example "Poems of the Month – August 2026"
• The selectors — the people who chose that month's poems
• Two featured poems, each with a title and author name
• Commended poems, listed with titles and authors
• A short excerpt from at least one featured poem, followed by a "Click for more" link to the full post
• Categories, which place the post alongside related content such as the annual anthology, city meetings, or the year

The August 2026 post, for example, was selected by 2026 Anthology editors Elizabeth Salna and Erica Jolly. The featured poems were "You can't keep a good witch down" by Jude Aquilina and "Fresh Blood – Ode to Young'uns" by phil saunders. The commended poems were "An Unforgotten Song" by Darrell Coggins, "Sophia's garden, a 'sabbath space' (with Wendell Berry in mind)" by Dawn Colsey, "Dead Weight (For Russell)" by Ros Schulz, and "Backstreet Shoes" by Michelle Slatter.

The July 2026 post followed the same pattern, with Maeve Archibald and Mike Riddle as the named poets.

Who selects the poems

The selectors change from month to month. In the August 2026 entry, the selectors were the editors of that year's anthology, which links the monthly feature to the organisation's annual publication cycle. Because the selector role rotates, the feature reflects a range of editorial perspectives over time rather than a single fixed judge.

Why the feature is useful

Poems of the Month works as a low-commitment entry point to Friendly Street Poets' activity:

• It shows which poets are currently active and being read within the collective.
• It names both established and newer voices, since commended lists often include poets at different stages.
• It connects to the group's larger projects — the annual anthology, New Poets, and Single Poet — through its categories and selectors.

If you want to read the full poems rather than excerpts, follow the "Click for more" link in each monthly post. If you are interested in the organisation's submission and prize processes, the monthly posts are a useful first look at the kind of work that gets selected, but they are not themselves submission guidelines.