Re: A judge's viewpoint
Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2010 7:33 am
I pretty much agree with ev'rything David has said, but what troubles me most about bush poetry is the sameness of it all. I have often sat down to some 80 line epic that has won a major comp and said to myself, "Stephen, you can do it. You can read this poem right through, from the start to the very end. It just takes determination and application." A lot of them, while technically splendid, are (dare I say it?) a bit dull...or so it seems to me. Obviously, many others would not agree, or else they would not have won.
I suppose I should come clean and say that I lack the patience (and possibly also the technical skill) to mix it with the truly elite bush poets. Then again, I favour a slightly different type of writing, and seem to do reasonably well in my chosen field.
I worry, though, that so little prize winning bush poetry finds an audience. Let's face it, most of it never even gets published!
From what I've seen (and I'm happy to be corrected) most bush poetry comps are pretty much the same. The entries range from 40 - 80 lines (with a preponderance of the longer lengths); there is an 'Open' category, perhaps a 'Humorous' one, perhaps a 'Local' one, and a couple of junior categories.
Big deal!
I'd like to see comp organisers demonstrate far more imagination.
I'd like a category for a poem with a maximum of 40 lines.
I'd like a category where all 'AABB' and 'ABAB' rhyme patterns are banned.
I'd like a category where all poems in which every line is the same length are banned.
I'd like a 'tribute' category. By this, I mean we say, 'This year we want poems written in the style of Barcroft Boake. Next year it will be Mary Gilmore. The year after that it will be Thomas Spencer,' etc.
I'd like a category of poems written by adults for children. (Toolangi has this. Are there others? There may be, but I'm not aware of them.)
And...(sound the trumpets!)...I'd like a prize for the best 'verse novel' - for both adults and children. "What is a verse novel?" I hear you ask. Well, the most successful poetry books ever published in Australia were both verse novels. I'm talking about the Sentimental Bloke and Ginger Mick. A verse novel is a novel told in verse - a series of verses that, when put together, work as a novel - they tell a longer, more complicated story, involving a larger cast of characters.
The general public love novels. That was true 100 years ago, and it's still true today. Lawson's publishers begged him to write a novel, and he had a good crack at it with 'Water Them Geraniums'. Dennis published a 'book of poems' (Backblock Ballads) and it bombed. He then wrote a verse novel, and guess what? Huge success.
We don't see many verse novels these days, because they are extremely hard to write. (And let's face it, most of us bush poets are past our prime, and our brains are starting to atrophy!) But I think that's all the more reason to encourage them.
We need super-short poems, and we need super-long ones (novels). In short, we need more diversity - both to stimulate ourselves and our audiences.
I suppose I should come clean and say that I lack the patience (and possibly also the technical skill) to mix it with the truly elite bush poets. Then again, I favour a slightly different type of writing, and seem to do reasonably well in my chosen field.
I worry, though, that so little prize winning bush poetry finds an audience. Let's face it, most of it never even gets published!
From what I've seen (and I'm happy to be corrected) most bush poetry comps are pretty much the same. The entries range from 40 - 80 lines (with a preponderance of the longer lengths); there is an 'Open' category, perhaps a 'Humorous' one, perhaps a 'Local' one, and a couple of junior categories.
Big deal!
I'd like to see comp organisers demonstrate far more imagination.
I'd like a category for a poem with a maximum of 40 lines.
I'd like a category where all 'AABB' and 'ABAB' rhyme patterns are banned.
I'd like a category where all poems in which every line is the same length are banned.
I'd like a 'tribute' category. By this, I mean we say, 'This year we want poems written in the style of Barcroft Boake. Next year it will be Mary Gilmore. The year after that it will be Thomas Spencer,' etc.
I'd like a category of poems written by adults for children. (Toolangi has this. Are there others? There may be, but I'm not aware of them.)
And...(sound the trumpets!)...I'd like a prize for the best 'verse novel' - for both adults and children. "What is a verse novel?" I hear you ask. Well, the most successful poetry books ever published in Australia were both verse novels. I'm talking about the Sentimental Bloke and Ginger Mick. A verse novel is a novel told in verse - a series of verses that, when put together, work as a novel - they tell a longer, more complicated story, involving a larger cast of characters.
The general public love novels. That was true 100 years ago, and it's still true today. Lawson's publishers begged him to write a novel, and he had a good crack at it with 'Water Them Geraniums'. Dennis published a 'book of poems' (Backblock Ballads) and it bombed. He then wrote a verse novel, and guess what? Huge success.
We don't see many verse novels these days, because they are extremely hard to write. (And let's face it, most of us bush poets are past our prime, and our brains are starting to atrophy!) But I think that's all the more reason to encourage them.
We need super-short poems, and we need super-long ones (novels). In short, we need more diversity - both to stimulate ourselves and our audiences.