ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Well done, Terry. Congratulations!

Thanks Everyone

As you say David I wasn't sure what sort of poem would be suitable, I had never entered that comp before;
I saw an add for it in the eMuse Magazine and decided to give it a go.

Interestingly the poem that won was about as Bushy as you can get.

Cheers Terry

Excellent news - congratulations to you both Terry and David!

Thanks Catherine

Terry

Well done both of you,

It is inspiring to see, as David mentioned, rhyming verse doing well. It is easy to forget there are other people writing good poetry, including rhyming poems, out there who are not associated with the ABPA. I bet there are some of those who don't even know we exist.

Thanks Zondrae

There are a lot of closet poets out there, I know quite a few myself.
They just write for the pleasure of it, and some are excellent writers as well.


Cheers Terry

Thanks, everyone.

Terry's comment about not being sure what sort of poem would be suitable is significant. Open competitions are usually dominated by free verse, quite possibly because those who write rhyming verse assume that there's not much point in entering. And there is certainly a risk, for the judge(s) may not be interested in, or have much knowledge of, metre and rhyme. But it's worth doing what Terry did and having a go because the more rhyming entries there are, the better the chance that organisers will sit up and take notice...as they did in this competition.

On another tack, there are also competitions for rhyming verse that don't specify "bush" poetry, some run by FAW branches in NSW that simply call for "traditional" verse. And, to illustrate that there are other judges who regularly cross to the dark side, FreeXpresSion (that's how it's written) magazine runs a comp with two sections, one for traditional rhyming poetry and one for free verse...and both have been judged for several years by Ron Stevens, renowned as a bush poet, but also a writer of free verse.

Cheers
David