POETRY RAGE

Poet and co-MC Maggie Ball
launches 100 Poets

 

Poet Sarah St Vincent Welch launches
Bitumen Psalms (Kolkata/Calcutta style).
Photo: Dylan Jones

Poet and singer/songwriter Clark Gormley (left)
has a moment with co-MC Richard James Allen

So it was a raging success! A ton of Flying Islands poets, friends and supporters at The Shop Gallery in Glebe, January 26, all celebrating this year’s seven new Pocket Poetry titles, alongside Flying Islands’ first anthology 100 Poets! 

The pocket books are: Filmworks by Brian Purcell, Flower Ash by Huang Fan — translated by Josh Stenberg, The Heart’s Lush Gardens by David Adès, Separation Blues: Poems 1994-2024 by Nathanael O’Reilly, Stranded by Bronwyn Rodden, Tadpoems by Tug Dumbly and my own Bitumen Psalms. 100 Poets is edited by Brian Purcell and Flying Islands Series Editor Kit Kelen. 

Richard James Allen, poet, filmmaker, choreographer and performer was an entertaining emcee for the 2025 Pocket Poets section. The engaging Maggie Ball, poet, novelist and podcaster, launched 100 Poets and kept the lively mood going during readings by quite a number of contributing poets. 

All the launch speeches were thought provoking. A special mention to dear friend and collaborator Sarah St Vincent Welch, writer, image-maker, editor, and writing teacher. Sarah gave me a Calcutta style launch where basically every time the new book (tied with red ribbon) is held high, the whole audience applauds resoundingly. And they did. It added to the joy of this celebratory occasion. I especially enjoyed Sarah’s personal story of having to write out Psalms at school, a writing exercise she enjoyed. Very special thanks also to Dylan Jones for the book design and Kate O’Connor for the author photo. 

The readings were inspiring, amusing, enlightening. Across these new poetry titles, you will find poems on the history of great films, poems of wonder and sadness, poems of cultural or political absurdity, poems that get to the heart of the matter, travel through times and homelands, and poems that explore the strange worlds of everyday life and other complexities. 

Phyllis Perlstone reads her poem
published in 100 Poets

Visit https://flyingislandspocketpoets.com.au/product-category/2025/ to see these books and their striking covers. Click on each cover image for full information (and from where I borrowed descriptions in the above paragraph). Subscribe to receive all of this year’s new releases and a bonus two Flying Islands books. Alternatively, you can just order individual titles. 

A bonus for us all was sharing the space with poet, musician and artist Brian Purcell’s solo exhibition Floodlands. Whether tantalising waterscape or delectable still life, Brian’s paintings move with colour and vitality. You can see more here: https://brianpurcell.art Of course we all owe enormous thanks to The Shop Gallery owners, poet and artist Anna Couani and sculptor Hilik Mirankar.

At The Shop Gallery:
Floodplains exhibition by Brian Purcell;
Pocket Poetry sales on the pavement

Poet and exhibiting artist Brian Purcell
— also co-editor of 100 Poets