ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Yes, that may well be true Nev. Good one.

.. going to the Federal Government Arts website again .. as an aside.

Do you notice how that author/poet has a picture of himself with a wall of books behind him.? as an innocuous background.

That's a common media trick. It always rings alarm bells with me when I see that dreaded wall of books.

It is meant to make the person appear to be Learned.. an Authority. Totally credible.. as if the books behind him are there as tacit muscle to back him up, to lend veracity to what he says.. or writes.. Instant expert. Unchallengeable.

A ploy.

One day when I learn how to upload a self-photo to our ABPA site, I will make sure to have an impressive wall of books behind me too, rather than just the chook yard... to make me look like a Bush Poetry Authority. One has to admit the "wall of books" trick works.

As it will be my Enid Blyton collection featuring Noddy and The Secret Seven, I will have to be sure the titles cannot be read!

They don't have to be real books, Gary. Painted wood will suffice - in fact, it is probably better!

Yes fake books could be a good idea too Stephen!

Maybe our famous ABPA reciters should have a portable painted bookshelf prop behind them when they recite. To add that air of authority and competence.

OR

Have you noticed how politicians have Nodders behind them when they speak?

Politician centre stage, flanked by a flunkey behind and to either side... nodding assent continuously. Not exactly henchmen, but then not exactly not henchmen either. Better still if the Nodder is in uniform (Senior Policemen are best, followed by Fire Brigade types) of some sort because again it adds veracity and a hint of authority and intimidation..... and somewhere of course there is an Australian flag.

Sometimes you see people trying squeeze into the camera shot from the side, also nodding..... until pretty soon everyone is a Nodder! Contagious. You also see them in parliament, earning their huge salaries by sitting and nodding behind whoever has the floor.

Again... ABPA reciters with a book-prop AND a couple of nodders on stage too!?? That could catch on.

Which begs the question... how did we divert to this insane topic.??

Well just blame the $80,000 defecating goat I previously alluded to. Isn't poetry grand!

I entered my Riders on the Wind for the Kenneth Slessor Prize ($30,000!) in the NSW Premier's Awards. 40 poems that have won first prizes in bush poetry comps and it didn't even make the short-list. Should have known about the importance of goats!

David

I really don't think any rhyming verse has a snowflake's chance in hell of pulling off a major literary award like that. It would be fascinating to go back through the records and see when it last happened. Probably never, because if you go back to a time when rhyming verse reigned supreme (about a hundred years ago now!), most of these awards did not even exist.

Exactly David. Rhyme is the crime.

I can just imagine the black-tie Prime Minister's Awards Night.

The Yartz Minister looking for the usual photo op hands over the massive taxpayer funded $80,000 cheque, to media camera flashes.

"Now Mr X. would you like to read out some of your brilliant poetry tonight... "

"Well you see..it's like this..... there was this watertank and a defecating goat....."

(collective embarrassed groan from the audience....)

I must confess, I rather like that fragment of prize-winning verse, with its comment on the nature of the non-human world, and our place in it. A sobering and humbling reminder.

Well Stephen there was a time when a painting that was not abstract modernist had no chance of winning a major art award. In fact the ability to draw was not even a criteria for art judging.
The world has turned, skilled drawing and traditional elements such as composition, form and tonal application are now recognised as quality art.
But contemporary painters have not just churned out endless imitations of Tom Roberts or Arthur Streeton, they have given tradition a modern eye.

I think that if we can give traditional poetic form a modern voice then we should succeed in being accepted. Endless imitations of Banjo Paterson won't do it
( as Manfred will tell you ). Rhyme is NOT the crime.

In a way you have succeeded with your latest book, so there. You've got a foot in the door.

I am told goat is the most consumed meat in the world.

No wonder there is so much goat shit for us to deal with.

When I first read the goat poem I truly thought someone WAS having an Ern Malley laugh at the contemporary poetry world. Perhaps we should get together as a group and whack in the most outrageous piece of crap we can come up with under the name of ....wait for it......steady...Mel Nearly.....

On the serious side a lot of important things have been said in this thread.

For myself, I don't enter many comps anymore. I am certain that some comps can be won by writing to a formula. Some comps are judged by the same group or single judge year in and year out. Once I caught myself writing to a formula I was angry with myself and stopped entering most comps. I still whack in an entry if I believe I have something important to say socially or poetically and I can honestly say I get a lot of satisfaction out of that approach. I become disheartened when I read some winning poems that are looking a little unfinished. I too have been guilty.

I agree with Stephens earlier summation.

At the moment you're right, Stephen. The trouble is, if we don't enter competitions like these we're effectively saying that we accept the status quo and don't expect anything to change. It's something of a vicious circle. My book was probably the only one of its kind entered for the Kenneth Slessor Prize, so it's easily dismissed as an oddity. Quaint. A bit of doggerel, to use a common derogatory term. But if there had been a dozen or so books of bush poetry, then maybe the judges would have taken a bit of notice and thought: "Perhaps there's something in this." As it is, bush poetry isn't on their radar. They don't see an audience for it.

Yes, it's rather like banging your head against a brick wall, but you never know when a crack might appear. These major comps attract what little publicity is given to poetry. The results are published in leading newspapers and magazines, and the books (or single poems, if that's the case) are reviewed, with excerpts quoted. The paradox is, of course, that the general public, if they notice at all, usually aren't impressed by what they read. So poetry as an art form suffers, and we have to struggle even harder for recognition.

Bush poetry results and poems don't make it into the literary supplements of the Fairfax or Murdoch papers, or any of the major journals. The only way anything will change (and this is also related to the comments about bush poetry becoming too "boring") is to keep hammering away at that wall and trying new approaches that might reach a broader audience and attract greater respect. Not easy, by any means, but worth having a go.

Cheers
David