Newspaper poetry article

[David Campbell]

There's an interesting poetry article in today's Age (http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/societ ... 1fz31.html). It's about Emilie Zoey Baker, a very successful performance poet (mainly with free verse) and her idea for a poetry slam television program. I've seen Emilie perform, and she's absolutely brilliant, so she's a great ambassador for poetry, whether spoken or written. It's worth reading the article just to see how she describes poetry and what it can do...she also takes poetry into schools.

If, by some miracle, this idea actually gets off the ground, I reckon it'd be a great platform for some of our top performance poets. I remember Carol Heuchan's excellent work on that ABC program last year...there's nothing like a national audience!

Cheers
David

[Bob Pacey]

I was not very impressed with the abc poetry slam when it was on. Quite a few patrons mentioned it and thought it was some what boring. To each their own I surpose.

I find that the free verse slammers in most cases use four letter words to try to get impact and if you have to do that I think it degrades the real message they are trying to get accross.


Bob

[warooa]

I agree Bob, and I think that those who do give the genre a 'black mark' so to speak because a lot of them, as David said are brilliant.
I was at a Festival where one slam poets opening to a family audience at 8am was "I love it here, guys it's f#*@ing awesome".

Trying to get an audiences attention I guess, and it's obviously fine for a nightime adult show but totally inappropriate for the time and place.

Marty

[Neville Briggs]

That is a very interesting article David. ( black fingernails ) Some of the replies were interesting too and predictable.

[Vic Jefferies]

A very interesting newspaper article David and thank you for posting it.
However, I suspect Emilie Zoe Baker is not attempting to promote our style of poetry. While what she and her friends do in the form of slam type presentations can be very entertaining and does appeal to our youth it is a long way from what we present. Sort of the difference between punk rock and Frank Sinatra, I fear.
Was persuaded to enter a performance competition years ago and upon arrival found myself surrounded by people in black skivvies and berets. One bloke appeared completely naked on the stage except for a strategically placed sock; one of the females commenced her poem with the crudest obscene word and her crudity descended dramatically from thereon; another bloke became so emotionally distraught during his recitation (it was two minute time limit) he couldn't carry on. I don't think anyone ever worked out the cause of his emotional upheaval.
Because I had no idea what was expected at the competition I of course presented a rhyming poem. It caused a great amount of interest and I was highly commended. Never went back!
They were happy and I am happy for them.
I too held great expectations for the ABC program last year but was completely disappointed in the end.
I thought it was a grand idea that went horribly wrong because the producers had no idea of the depth of talent that exists within the bush poetry movement and because of this or perhaps for other reasons selected the wrong "poets" to participate.
I know some of those chosen and know that they had no affinity whatsoever with bush poetry.
I am sure the program could have been a large success if some of our noted friends had performed and the format had been changed.
Because I ceased to watch it after a couple of episodes, can anyone tell me if the program eventually ran for its intended full length and was there a winner?

[Neville Briggs]

One bloke appeared completely naked on the stage except for a strategically placed sock

[Bob Pacey]

Why would you go on stage with a sock on your nose ????

I made the Queensland final of the State Library Poetry Slam doing bush poetry three years in a row but last year thay moved the heat to Stanthorpe. When I first entered they told me that more consideration would be given to poets who memorised their work but the guy who won last year read his poem and this was because the audience ( which by the way in Brisbane is made up of mostly uni students and friends of the Brisbane finalist ) gets to judge the winner.

Still Greg North has made the finals but as you know Greg has a unique style and can adapt his poetry with his range of voices .



Bob

[Vic Jefferies]

How did I know you were going to say that?

[David Campbell]

I fully agree that some of the other performers on the ABC program left a lot to be desired, but it can't have been easy to produce a topical poem under that sort of time pressure. Nevertheless, there are good free verse performers who don't rely on four-letter words (or socks) and Emilie, although not a bush poet, is a case in point. She was clever, interesting and funny.

If such a TV program were to be produced it'd be a great pity if it was all free verse as that would give only a limited view of the Australian poetry scene. I'd hope that our best bush poetry performers would get a chance to show what they can do and, if it happened to be part of some rather eccentric 'turns' from the free verse side, then I guess we'd just have to grin and bear it. At least it would showcase a variety of poetry styles and perhaps encourage more interest from teachers and children, something which, as has been observed in other threads, seems to be lacking at the moment.

David

[Stephen Whiteside]

It seems a lot of these television competitions have the ability to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory - or perhaps I just don't value what they value. There was one a while ago for the best choir. I got quite excited, because there are some fantastic choirs around. In the end, though, the choirs that did best seemed to be the ones with the flashiest soloists, which seemed to me to undermine the original premise of the show.