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Write a Poem, Plant a Tree
CSL Audience Riverside

Poetic News
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Dive Into Baraya Barray
Charmaine Papertalk Green Bundanon workshop

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Welcome to Red Room Poetry

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  • 90+ Major projects
  • 1,818+ Poets commissioned
  • 43,665+ Poems created

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Poem Forest Listing

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

Featured Theme

Waterways

  • Birrarung Billabong
    By Tony Birch

    Sitting 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…

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  • Nyarlu Malga (Strong Woman)
    By Charmaine Papertalk Green

    ABA    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

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  • sun glint drift
    By Anne Elvey

    a name for what speaks     this day to
    water
    as creek replies 
    mirror

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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.
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    Poem Forest

    Poem Forest is a free nature writing prize that breathes life back into the natural world that sustains us. Entries now open!
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    Phone-a-Poem

    Pick up the landline handset and dial a number to hear a poem.

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