ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

A PROVERB

You never read instructions
Or follow wise advice.
Undoubtedly the expert
Is you, in your own eyes.
Diabolical disasters
Infest your every deed.
Of one thing please be certain.
That you will not succeed.

Not bad Neville but you were a bit stingy with the words.

Terry

I don't understand Terry, what does stingy with words mean ??

Stingy Nev, Close fisted or tight as a fishes ( you know what )


Bob

Stingy!!! That's a bit harsh I thought this was very good - sometimes less is more.

Reading directions or instructions - seems to be a male failing Neville - something blokes don't do. Females do, but it often doesn't help because we have to point the maps in the direction we are going and still get lost and those flat packs of furniture always seem to have bits left over after assembly is completed, and we DID read the instructions.

Well done Neville and thanks for entering into the spirit of have a go you mug

Cheers

Maureen

Sorry Neville,
That was just a weak attempt at repartee (been dying to use that word - possibly doesn't fit here anyway)

You can see why I seldom try to write humorous stuff can't you.

Cheers Terry

Bob, Marty, Terry. Of course I know what stingy means. Word stinginess was the mystery to me. As I understand it, poetry is the distillation of language, trying to pack the most meaning into just the adequate words of force, without any dead wood so to speak. , not necessarily the least amount of words.
I agree with Maureen, less can be more , with careful construction that is.
I suppose one could be guilty of being too short and understating the message but I think that the worse fault is too many words, too much dead wood or padding.

As one poetry instructor has said, if you want to fill up pages with words maybe you should be a novelist instead of a poet.

No worries Terry. You gave me a chance to give a sermon on brevity

Thanks Maureen. Many is the time I got lost by a certain female co-driver reading maps upside down.

I assembled a flat pack cupboard the other day. The instructions had no text, just pictures !!. It took me over an hour to do what should have been a simple five minute assembly with written instructions. Don't they know that writing replaced pictographs centuries ago because pictographs are not easier, they are dreadfully inefficient as commmunication.