What children are writing about

[Zondrae]

G'day all,

I have always favoured the formal set out of rhyme. I am a Libra and I seem to need an aesthetic of balance. (you should watch me make a bed!) but recall some minor deviations. I have always written little rhymes for people eg; cards for special occasions. But didn't keep any record as they were given away at the time.

I particularly recall a verse I wrote in 1987, for one of my kids school projects on Hargraves. (the kite man). I think it was blank verse. (She got very good marks). I didn't keep a copy and the project was kept by the teacher.

I remember it went something like this

Trying, rising, gliding, falling slowly to the ground.
Make them bigger, lighter, stronger til you get it right.
Clearing grass and stones on runway on the hill above the sea.
Then at last upon the beach, flight is almost in my reach, wind is right, the course is set,
kites assembled, hoping that
todays the day and I am set to write my name in history,

[Maureen K Clifford]

Yep - guilty as charged - since the age of 8 according to Mum. You would think it would be turning out a lot better by now Like Zondrae I too am a Libran and wrote (still do) mainly for friends and family - my bed making skills are ho hum as are ironing skills - better things to do I don't have anything to prove these days and run the place to suit myself and the girls. Erratic hours, meals whenever, do it or don't do it as I please - I answer to nobody and love it.

[Heather]

I think I am turning into you Maureen! Try as I might, I don't think I will ever pass cushion arranging class! did I mention that I am a Libran too?

[Stephen Whiteside]

I wrote quite a lot of rhyming verse in my primary school years, very little as a teenager, and then returned to it as a young adult, so I guess my comments reflect my personal experience.

[Maureen K Clifford]

Over 2554 children and 130 schools in Australia & NZ participated in this poetry writing competition

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=bad ... a66a50db35

[David Campbell]

Interesting, Maureen, I've never heard of this competition. Has anyone else?

I'm not sure about that figure of 2554 in terms of the number of children's poems entered. There's a teachers' section, to begin with. There's also a photography element...the competition is based around taking photos of special objects and writing poems about them, and that figure may include photos or "photographic installations". The judge's report only refers to "two hundred poems from kids across the nation", so exactly what that 2554 includes is not at all clear.

Again, there's some very good poetry, but only one of the 12 award-winning children's poems published on the website is rhyming verse.

Cheers
David

[Robyn]

Very interesting discussion. Thanks to all who have contributed.
Heather, my first published poem was in a school magazine while I was in High School and it rhymed.
I have been reciting poetry for almost as long as I remember, and wrote a few (rhyming) poems when my kids were little, but focused mainly on prose until I found what I thought were the like-minded souls of the bush poetry community. I've written some free verse poems as well, but I like rhyme.
Now like Stephen I worry that the ABPA is painting itself into a corner. I am an Australian, living in Australia who earns their bread and butter from Australian soil. My poems are about the things that interest me. I remember being quite taken aback when I realised that some of my poems with rhyme and metre are not 'Australian' enough to be considered bush poetry in a competition.
Here I was thinking I was a bush poet when some of my poems didn't qualify as bush poems at all! For I while I thought I'd call myself a rhyming poet, but have grown to feel that any adjective is almost apologetic. As if it means I am less of a poet than a 'real' poet.
So now I'm inclined to just say I'm a poet, and let my work speak for itself.
I worry that the ABPA will end up limiting itself to a one-dimensional view of Australia. As Neville said, Australia is part of the universe. I think we are condemning ourselves to a smaller and smaller niche if we exclude poems with a universal theme.
As for hats, David I think they suit some people and their work but not others. Outside poetry, while I may at times accidentally resemble the country cousin come to town, I wouldn't dream of deliberately making myself look more country than I am. I prefer to think that farmers can actually scrub up quite well! My poetry is an extension of myself, so when on stage I try to reflect the diversity of modern country life.
Thanks again to all those who have contributed to this thread. There have been some very thought-provoking comments.

[Neville Briggs]

Very well said Robyn.

[Robyn]

Thanks Neville

[David Campbell]

Robyn's comment about being "taken aback" when she realised that some of her poems were not "Australian" enough for bush poetry probably reflects something we've all been through, and goes back to my question earlier in the thread: "What makes a poem Australian?" We all have our own ideas, developed over time, about what the ABPA definition of bush poetry means, and those ideas will vary, but it's worth trying to look at the ABPA from an outsider's point of view...somebody, such as a secondary student, coming across this website, a bush poetry competition, or a festival for the first time.

To begin with, there's the word "bush", which has obvious connotations. Then there's the need for consistent metre and rhyme, and finally there's the wording about Australia. That's a few hurdles to jump, particularly for someone coming from a free verse background.

Say you want to write a love poem that qualifies as bush poetry. You're okay with tackling metre and rhyme, but how do you interpret the "bush" and "Australian" requirements? An obvious solution would be to set the love story in the outback, something that's been done often enough. Or maybe make it an historical romance, perhaps involving two lovers separated by one of the major wars in which Australia has been involved. Also been done.

But what about the story of a Sunni boy and a Shia girl in present-day Sydney, kept apart by their family backgrounds? Or a Pakistani boy and an Israeli girl in Brisbane? Then there’s the poem about the child bride mentioned earlier. Although illegal here, it reportedly happens, so would that be accepted as “Australian” if done in rhyming verse? Have a look at some of the children’s names in the Ipswich competition: Tiriel Kamide, Lisa Nguyen, Kate Chan, Vegini Krishnamoorthy, Emile Regano, Gabriella De Oliviera, Tessa Campisi, Luka Zubcic. Now check out the names attached to the dozens of winning poems in the “Poetry” section of our home page, and you’re in a very different Australia…one that’s overwhelmingly white and Anglo-Saxon.

Is this, to an outsider, what we mean by “the Australian way of life” in 2014?

David