Welcome to Red Room Poetry
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20+ Years
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90+ Major projects
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1,416+ Poets commissioned
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43,224+ Poems created
Read the latest news from Red Room Poetry
Poem Forest 2025: Understory
Unveiling the Understory
Step into the 2025 Poem Forest and explore this year’s theme: Understory — an invitation to uncover the rich, hidden layers of the natural world and ourselves. We’re calling on students and teachers to slow down, listen deeply, and give voice to the vibrant life beneath the forest canopy — from fungi and insects to roots, memory, and quiet growth. Whether you're writing from the spinifex plains or the depths of a classroom, we invite you to notice what often goes unseen and celebrate the stories that thrive in shadow. Join us in nurturing both creativity and Country — for every poem submitted, a tree will be planted, helping to grow a future where every voice matters.
Workshops now open for registration
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International Day for Biological Diversity (Primary)
Thursday 22nd May 2025 -
International Day for Biological Diversity (Secondary)
Thursday 22nd May 2025
Until Thursday 22nd May 2025 -
Baraya Barray - Whale Song and the Understory (Primary)
Wednesday 11th June 2025
Until Wednesday 11th June 2025
Featured Theme
Waterways
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Nyarlu Malga (Strong Woman)
By Charmaine Papertalk GreenABA a women’s daily dance for good BARNDIMANMANHA
JUGARNU Spirits move within the memory ground NHANGANHA
JURDU Country bush broom stirs dust and land WINDI-WINDIN
NYARLU Universe sweeping with grandmothers hand JUNDANMANHA -
Birrarung Billabong
By Tony BirchSitting with your open coffin thinking and not thinking I want to be with the world and you. I knock against the grain of wood and want to know if you remember the day we took the bikes to the river and rode along the bank against a current willing us home to safety. At the billabong we circled sacred water, threw away our shoes and socks and spla… -
a water suite
By Evelyn Araluen, Anahera Gildeaocean/saltwater/waitī/mulli tahnee
where i’m from the sand is cold at night, the shells empty, grey
cloud scudding like
Featured Projects
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Baraya Barray - Whale Song
Baraya Barray is a cultural immersion experience for young First Nations people, celebrating First Languages through the creation of poetry, song and dance. -
Poem Forest
Poem Forest is a free nature writing prize that breathes life back into the natural world that sustains us. Entries now open! -
Phone-a-Poem
Pick up the landline handset and dial a number to hear a poem.
Featured Theme
Find your new favourite poem
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The Great Displaced
By Omar MusaFor Jess
The boy lights a candle
and faces a perilous horizon. -
The language of hope
By Hodan Yasin, Saba Vasefitranslated by Saba Vasefi
I close my eyes,
Releasing countless butterflies— -
With Change
By Aurora Liddle-ChristieThe land is crying for us to care
care that blood waters its soil more than rain
The seasons have shifted, but humanity stays the same
