ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

I just know what I like and what I don't and that is probably different to the person next to me - and that's ok.

The Book of Bellerive arrived. Poems by Joseph Tishler.

Thanks Vic ... it is certainly a useful addition.

The article quoted does sum him up accurately.

I was curious to know why if his work was so bad it would be included in an anthology of Good work.

Having cringed at the first couple of poems, I realised there was an enormous charm about his poems!
The clear naivety of a person trying to follow the general format of ballads... trying, but not succeeding. But in not succeeding he succeeds in getting to the reader's heart. He is addressing the ordinary person, not high-brows... and so in reading his poems I feel oddly comfortable.

There is a huge sincerity about it all... he is a genuine bloke. You gotta like the guy. No pretentions. Athough he believed he had an enormous talent, that belief in itself adds to the attraction.
Who could not like someone who writes about :

The Boar and British War

.. and perhaps his best lines...

I like to look back
To the long years sped
Memories live though
The past is dead.

(???)

Perhaps it is another form of sophistication ... simple writing... and gentlemanly too. Not a "bloody" or "dunny" in the book. Not needed.

So.. Good? Bad? I don't know but reading his book you certainly have to love the guy and his simple sincerity! as apparently many did.

Thanks again for citing him Vic.