POETRY
"Poetry is how we endure the unendurable. Sometimes it has to be a lie."
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Pip Williams -
The Bookbinder of Jericho
In 2018, I quit my day job and started doing other, more creative, things. For fun, I entered a local slam. I won my heat and went on to be runner up in the final. I was hooked - on poetry, on performance, and into the Adelaide spoken word community.
I now participate at open mics, storytelling events, and slams. I write pretty much everyday and when someone inevitably asks “What do you do?” I answer “I am a writer.”
Some of my poetry highlights along the way include:​
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finalist in the 2021 South Australian State Slam;
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finalist in the 2020 Winter Slam;
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runner-up in the 2024 Nature Festival 'Be Natural' Slam;
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runner-up in the 2019 Adelaide Summer Slam;
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​selected for Raining Poetry in Adelaide in 2021;
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participation in open mics across Adelaide, including co-hosting The Good Word (2021-2023) and Voicebox (2023/34) at Mixed Creative, Port Adelaide;
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Spoken Word SA's Poet in Residence at Adelaide City Library in April/May of 2023;
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five of pieces selected for Poetic City Canberra’s Haiku 4 You project in 2023;
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founding partner of Ellipsis Poetry, with Jazz Fechner-Lante (listen to Ellipsis Poetry on Vision Australia Radio);
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​​publication in print and online including: mindshare, Meniscus, Saltbush Review, InDaily, Five Fleas, and Adelaide, Mapping the Human City.
Please use the links that follow to read, or listen to, some poetry. Those marked NEW have been added in the latest update.
Quick Links
Short Reads
Choose Your Own Adventure (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 25 May 2023)
God Shrugs (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 11 January 2023)
Human (selected for Haiku 4 You project 2023) NEW
Humble Beetroot (selected for Haiku 4 You project 2023) NEW
Lettuce Eat (curated by InDaily 26 July 2023)
Life's Theatre (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 21 July 2024)
Light Night (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 21 July 2024)
Lingering in the Shadows (selected for Haiku 4 You project 2023) NEW
Loyalty and Trust (selected for Haiku 4 You project 2023) NEW
Orange Leaves (selected for Haiku 4 You project 2023) NEW
Our Jagged-Edged World (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 25 May 2023)
Sea Life (curated for Flow, Friendly Street Reader 25, 2001)
The Flow (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 21 July 2024)
Wings (curated for Raining Poetry in Adelaide 2021 and The Saltbush Review Issue 1)
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About Adelaide
Outside a Library (curated by InDaily 25 October 2023)
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Ekphrastic Poetry
A Symphony of Sorrowful Songs - How sad Does It Need To Be?
Always Look on the Bright Side of Gorecki (curated by InDaily 10 May 2023, or listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW AUDIO
Cats & Prints & Screens (listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW
Experience, Fuzzy but Important
Mac Broth (curated for Spinning Thistledown, Barossa Writers anthology, 2001)
Morning has Broken over The Grapes of Wrath
Shade and Shine (commissioned for Wanderlust Greenock, Fringe 2020)
The Time has Come to Talk of Many Things:
Environmental Poetry
A New Spring (listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW
Fish (runner-up at Be Natural poetry slam, SA Nature Festival, 2024)
Protectors of the Bushland Dream
Trackside. Pakenham. Ash Wednesday 1983.
You are Here (curated by InDaily 1 November 2023)
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Love Poems
Aging Feels like Smoked Herring Paste
Him (curated by InDaily 17 May 2023)
Say Love (curated by InDaily 26 July 2023)
The hinge on the garlic press is loose (curated by JAKE 22 December 2024) NEW
The Science of Seduction (curated for Meniscus Vol 11 Issue 1 2023, or listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW AUDIO
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The Pandemic
Dog and Hope Essential (No Stamp Required)
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Politics
Jack's Fractured Fairytale NEW
Spring Racing - Melbourne 2019
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I am Woman
Choose Your Own Adventure (curated for Five Fleas Itchy Poetry 25 May 2023)
Olympia Dukakis is Not Dead Yet (Sadly, Olympia Dukakis died 1 May 2021, but was not dead at the time of writing.)
Writing and Poetry
Iceberg NEW
In the Beginning was a Word (or listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW AUDIO
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Up Close & Personal
Brave (curated for Mindshare Creative Content October 2024)
Damn the Dawn (listen on Vision Australia Radio) NEW
Nobody is Likely to Write a Poem about Soap
Thoughts on Turning Fifty-Seven
Thoughts that Go Bump in the Night NEW
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None of the Above