Dear, dear friends,

You won’t mind us calling you friends, we hope. We are assuming that since this is our first official emailed newsletter that it is only our friends who are reading it. And so, dear friends, thank you. Thank you for dropping your email address into the required slot and pulling the handle. Here is your prize.

Yes, we know we said we weren’t going to do a newsletter. And we won’t do it all that often. Or at least, we don’t think we will at this stage. Who knows? But here’s why:

You guys ask us a lot of questions in between our events. That’s fine. We often have answers. But we thought it might be more time effective for everyone if all our answers were all together in one place. So we thought, maybe we do need a website after all.

Stay with me!

After a lot of looking around at different things that other people were using, we discovered this platform Beehiiv that builds us a website automatically from newsletters - even newsletters that we don’t send to anyone. It’s like having a big filing cabinet of documents to rifle through. So help yourself. Open a drawer and rifle.

This first edition is coming to you on the eve of Adelaide Fringe, so it follows that we would take the opportunity to remind you of our shows.

Poets Take Over! is a quarterly event with the February edition officially part of Fringe. Come and go as you please throughout the evening. If you want to catch a particular feature, here’s the line up and schedule:

The relaxed vibe is strummed into being by SilverGhostFish.

Friday 27 February, from 5:30 PM at Page & Turner in the Myer Centre. It is free to attend, no ticket required.

All Roads Lead to Bowie is a new show written and performed by us, Jazz and Pam. It is our own story of how we met, bonded, and came to be doing all this poetry stuff.

We have recruited a friend or two to help with production. Some you will see, some you will not. Some you may only hear!

It’s a little way out of the CBD at Walkerville - like opening off-Broadway. Two shows only. We’d love to see you there.

Sunday 8 March at 2:00 PM & Thursday 12 March at 6:00 PM, Walkerville Town Hall. Tickets are $10 (+transaction fee) Companion Card and Fringe Artist Passes welcome.

Saturday 21 March is World Poetry Day and at 2:00 PM we will be back at Page & Turner for the finalists’ showcase of Today Adelaide, Tomorrow the World - our poetry competition.

Again, this is a free event, family friendly, and in a bookshop. And you get to vote for the three prize winners. Scribble it on the calendar now so you don’t forget. We remind you before then, just in case.

February’s Open Mic at Arthur Art Bar once again saw us with a full list of talented poets keen to take to the stage. There were some items we haven’t seen before on the Trading Table. The Book Case was well patronised, so there are some new titles for you to consider next time. Ellipsis regular, Nick, had the difficult task of selecting a winner for Say it in Six - another regular, Kathryn, went home with the prize.

Photos and video from the night have been posted on our socials.

There is no Open Mic in March. Go see a Fringe Show instead (ours is on the night you would usually go to Open Mic - yes, that is a hint). Our next Open Mic is scheduled for Thursday 9 April.

The Say it in Six prompt for April is “14 Small Things”.

For the love of poetry…