Reflecting on 20 years of Poet’s Corner
Poetry is alive and well among us all in its rich and creative diversity, not tucked away in a milieu of its own, writes poetry editor John Miles on the 20th anniversary of our Poet’s Corner column.
They could be counted, the number of poems that have graced Solstice Media’s Poet’s Corner column over its twenty years from Saturday 15 April 2006 in InDaily’s print predecessor The Independent Weekly, to this Saturday 18 April 2026 in InReview, but suffice it to say that whatever their number, it would be as impressive as their authors have been in their diversity of lifestyles and lifeworlds.
Of those author contributors, the oldest was over ninety years young, the actual youngest under ten. There have been doctors and lawyers, even an Indian chief. There has been a butcher and a baker, and although not yet a candlestick maker, certainly a postman and a lighthouse keeper. Nurses and teachers have had their prominence, as have home builders and homemakers. Professors and writers, people on the land, those of the cloth, of defence and first responder roles, have all appeared. Alongside the abled, those with disability have sent in their poems, and do they have a story to tell us all from their awesome courage and fortitude.
As well as from all walks of life, contributors have come from places far and wide. From Adelaide itself, to around the state and Australia as a whole, and from there to overseas from places regardless of culture and home language. In Adelaide, members of the Friendly Street Poets collective that celebrated its own no less that 50th anniversary last year, poets of both an established and emerging status have made regular welcome appearances.
The poems themselves have been of their own diversity, like those about the climate and weather, sunrises and sunsets, and the ever coming and going of the seasons. Those about the moon, sun and stars, about our precious struggling planet itself and all the creatures great and small that would occupy it with us, have very much featured. Poems about love and loss, celebration and remembrance, about all of life’s aspects its aspirations and relationships, have come to the column in their constancy.
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Other categories of both poems and their author contributors would come to mind, but regardless they have all gone to make Poet’s Corner not only looked forward to and read locally, but nationally and internationally. Addedly, have readers that have written in to the column, shown to be of their own variety, in that diversity would seem of full circle of the poems, their creators, their readers. Diversity is as diversity does then, to paraphrase no less than that polymath poet, best-selling author, philosopher, interfaither and soldier-medico, Morgan Scott Peck.
Emails (‘letters’, if I may, in also trying for that little bit more poetic!) do come as well from readers who when saying how much they like the column, add that they would like to write a poem of their own and send it in, but that they are ‘not a poet!’ To such I’m only left to say that everyone has poetry in them, if they are admirers of the world and its peoples. So don’t be afraid I try to add, write away and send in a poem – or half a dozen if you would like to! Look again at the column, reassure yourself about what is to be found in the contributor bio notes, as well as the poems themselves. See what is there, the diversity of the poems and their authors yet again, see that poetry is very much alive and well in society/societies overall, that it is poetry by people for people, rather than it being tucked away in a milieu purely of its own.
My tenure as editor of the column for these twenty years, has been not just a personal pleasure, but a fully privileged one. In thanking all those varied contributors then for making the column work, all those equally varied and loyal readers must also be thanked, for it is an old truism after all that no matter how good something is, it doesn’t sell unless there is a buyer.
Last, but certainly not least, to use another old saying, Solstice Media itself must be thanked, Paul Hamra its founder, who all those years ago extended to me the invitation to start the column “with a little something of my own”. Definitely, must Solstice Media’s team, past and present, also be thanked, ones dedicated and enthusiastic in all their varied roles, who have not only supported and done poetry proud, but been the overseers of Solstice’s dual déclarations d’être: independent journalism overall, devoted to a championing of the arts overall, every bit as much as bringing the news, all of the news, also overall.
Read poetry then, and write it, and see where they take you.
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