Poet Damian Balassone examines a footy injury coming at the wrong time for a star footballer.
Almanac Poetry: Essay in Loneliness
February 16, 2026 by Leave a Comment
This week’s poem, according to Kevin Densley, fits in with the well-known dictum often attributed to Ernest Hemingway: ‘There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed.’
Almanac Poetry: ‘Pizza in Lucca’ – James Walton
February 13, 2026 by 3 Comments
Eating pizza is like a footy match suggests James Walton as he recalls, in verse, a wonderful pizza he enjoyed in Lucca, Italy.
Almanac Poetry: To Die
February 9, 2026 by 4 Comments
This poem from Kevin Densley, from his just-published collection, Isle Full of Noises (Ginninderra Press), deals with different ways condemned criminals have responded to their last moments on earth.
Almanac Music: ‘Ziggy played guitar’- Songs Referencing Musical Instruments
February 6, 2026 by 161 Comments
This instalment of KD’s long-running series on popular song concerns songs referencing musical instruments. As is always the case, readers’ song choices and comments are warmly welcomed.
Almanac Poetry: Half-full, Half-empty
February 2, 2026 by Leave a Comment
Kevin Densley describes this week’s poem, centred upon a comment by Swedish writer and painter August Strindberg, as ‘a very short one featuring God and the Devil’.
Almanac Books: ‘Here, Bear and Everywhere’
January 29, 2026 by 8 Comments
Damian Balassone has a new book out titled ‘Here, Bear and Everywhere’ featuring a ‘beary fun-filled romp through rhyme’ that early readers will love.
Almanac Poetry – Goodbye Georgie: A Sequel
January 19, 2026 by Leave a Comment
This week’s poem from Kevin Densley follows from one he wrote about George Best that appeared on The Footy Almanac in 2021. In the words of KD: ‘This sequel is about the difficulty of dealing with personal demons when one is in the public spotlight.’
Almanac Music: ‘Telephone Line’ – Songs Involving Phones
January 16, 2026 by 153 Comments
In the 2026 return of his long-running series on popular music themes, KD offers songs involving phones. As usual, readers’ song choices and comments are warmly welcomed.
Almanac Poetry: Elvis Presley’s Late Cheeseburger Period
January 12, 2026 by 30 Comments
In recognition of the *other* King’s Birthday (January 8th), Kevin Densley reprises his poem about the demise of the artist who embodied so much of the American Dream.
Ode to Head
January 6, 2026 by 10 Comments
Damian Balassone immortalises the great Aussie cricketer Travis Head in verse.
Almanac Poetry: Dionysia
January 5, 2026 by Leave a Comment
This week’s poem, according to Kevin Densley, ‘concerns a long-ago summer involving a catch-up with a friend, watching cricket on the TV, a session on the turps and a big night out – not forgetting a range of Greco-Roman mythological references.’
Almanac Poetry: She’s a Grid Girl
December 30, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Michael Pardy wrote ‘She’s a Grid Girl’ a few years ago reflecting the image of a particular type of person viewed by him.
Almanac Poetry: ‘Working Family Christmas’ – James Walton
December 25, 2025 by Leave a Comment
As we celebrate Christmas Day, we reprise James Walton’s poem which reflects upon the meaning of Christmas.
Almanac (Poetic) Life: Christmas Eve
December 24, 2025 by 6 Comments
This beaut little poem from John Gordon will touch those who are tallying up the years. As we reprise it three years down the track, John’s poem also encourages us to contemplate what John Harms calls ‘the simplicity and complexity’ of the Christmas season.
Almanac Poetry: Had a Better Offer
December 22, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Domestic cats have particular requirements when it comes to where they choose to live, according to this week’s previously unpublished poem from Kevin Densley.
Almanac Music: ‘Carnivalesque’ – Songs Referencing Carnivals, Circuses, Parades and the Like
December 19, 2025 by 87 Comments
The latest installment in KD’s long-running series on popular song themes is songs involving carnivalesque material – in other words, songs referencing carnivals, circuses, parades and the like. As is always the case, readers’ song choices and comments are warmly welcomed.
red wheelbarrow in the manner of Paul Gauguin’s Vision after the Sermon
December 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
This Monday’s poem, according to Kevin Densley is “what I see happening when William Carlos Williams often parodied modernist poem, ‘The Red Wheelbarrow’, meets a well-known painting by Gauguin.”
Almanac Memoir: Queer, Sultry Summer
December 8, 2025 by 32 Comments
John Lennon was shot dead forty-five years ago today, December 8. In this previously unpublished short memoir by Kevin Densley (possibly the first chapter of a book-length work, he says), he paints a vivid picture of the impact upon him of Lennon’s murder on the day – combined with a portrayal of central Melbourne in 1980, and other issues in his own life around that time. [A few names of actual people involved have been changed – Ed.]
Almanac Poetry: A Disguised Version of a Repressed Wish
December 1, 2025 by 2 Comments
Sigmund Freud famously described dreams as a disguised version of a repressed wish. Today’s poem by Kevin Densley is a jokey take on this idea.
Recent Comments