2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

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Gary Harding
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2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:30 am

Happened to flick on the TV last night and I came across the start of The Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2014 event. I thought, ah well may as well watch it and see what it is about....

As the compere pointed out at the start, this is Australia's most prestigious Literary Award.

Five minutes later I just had to turn it off as I was so absolutely disgusted.

Nevertheless.. not to be put off I looked up this year's winner of the Poetry section.
Poetry being a broad term which must necessarily encompass Traditional Australian poetry... bush poetry as well.

"Drag Down to Unlock or Place An Emergency Call" is the winner. Melinda Smith.

Well done Melinda.

http://cordite.org.au/reviews/bufton-smith/

Let me quote from this Prime Minister's Literary Award masterpiece.. or rather verbatim from the above detailed review of it. (It has Tony Abbott's endorsement)

In ‘A woman at 40 weeks gestation contemplates her undergarments’, we have this:

Oh God, is it wet down there again?
What oozing mystery awaits me now?
This better be the ‘show’. You lucky men,
Your effort is so brief – wham, bam, kapow!
(p 14)

Then, 21 pages later, ‘Murder at the poetry conference’ offers us:

The old pesticide factory
Casts a buzz-saw shadow
On the wall of the council chambers.
Inside the poets sit like aldermen.
They talk of war and genocide.
(p 35)

.. end quote....

For the above literary excellence, a tax-free amount of $80,000 is handed over.

$80,000!! In gross income terms that is worth say $120,000 !!!!! Holy poets Batman.

What a lot of "poetic" garbage. Absolute tripe! As for the above I find it disgusting, embarrassing and in plain bad taste.

Don't you love the reviewers expression "offers us.." It is so sweet...

The review of it by Melinda Bufton is straight out of Ern Malley. Pomposity... elitism and downright non-sensical stupidity. Who is she trying to impress and fool?

(Last year it was the goat... )

If it wasn't for the fact that it is my $80,000 being handed over for such rubbish and that it is falsely purported to represent the current height of Australian Poetry and is work of a standard that other "poets" should aspire to, I could not care less. They can all scratch each other's backs...

I suggest that work like "Drag Down to Unlock or Place An Emergency Call" by Melinda Smith represents the Lows of Australian poetical achievement, not highs.

My suspicion is that this Prime Minister's Award has less to do with Poetic achievement but more about the absolute power and control that The Club has in Canberra.

I find it disgraceful. Shameful.

Image Mum and Dad and the kids turning on the TV to see what top Australian Poetry is like only to have those first delightful four sample-lines read out. Strewth!

I do not know what literary Einsteins judge that as top class but they deserve their pants kicked, and I do not care if their name is Les Murray or Professor Fred Smith.

Even Sir Les Patterson, Australia's Cultural Attache, would have a hard job standing in front of a dinner-suited audience and reading out those first four lines above... and it takes a lot to embarrass Sir Les.

What a shameful farce.. and another waste and theft of the poor hardworking taxpayers money... (and getting poorer all the time I might add..)

It would be an interesting exercise to get into the engine-room of this whole poetic scandal. You can see an $80,000 cheque but you can bet the real cost of it, if you add up the pubic service cushy salaries associated would easily be ten times that amount. Plus other hangers-on expenses.

The entry conditions "self published works are not eligible".... so who actually pays for the above to be commercially printed?? How do they get around this rule, which so neatly excludes Bush Poetry. I smell government money somewhere.

All I can say is it is stupidity, pomposity and a total farce. Disgraceful.

Poetry??? No. Tripe? yes.

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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Bob Pacey » Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:38 am

Did not have to read much of that to agree Gary.


I always liken these things to the tale.


The Emperors New Cloths where they see what they want to see or believe they should in the hope of fitting in and seeming cool.


Bob
The purpose in life is to have fun.
After you grasp that everything else seems insignificant !!!

Neville Briggs
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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Neville Briggs » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:01 am

That's a very savage denigration Gary.

You seem to have condemned an entire work on the basis of a few lines.
Last edited by Neville Briggs on Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

manfredvijars

Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by manfredvijars » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:18 am

Yes, I know it's subjective - Have to agree with you Gary, not too many redemptive phrases in that lot ...
I must confess, the $80,000 rankles a bit ...

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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Neville Briggs » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:21 am

I've read a few of Melinda Smith's poems, one thing is that she can certainly write verse that scans.
I hope the bush poetry critics of this award can do as much.

As for $80,000. The painter James Whistler was challenged over the steep price of a work that took him an hour to do, he said the price was not for an hours work but for a lifetime's experience.
Last edited by Neville Briggs on Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
Neville
" Prose is description, poetry is presence " Les Murray.

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Gary Harding
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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Gary Harding » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:36 am

Yeah Bob, I do not mean to get on the soapbox though .. and perhaps one should spend one's time writing, and not "writing about writing"... more productive ? :) :)
However to remain silent is to acquiesce... to let them have their way unfettered and unchallenged ... and that is certainly not my style or that of others here too, I suspect. Fearless.

What does it achieve? Who knows. Not much probably.

While it is upsetting in one way, it is also good for a laugh .... Yes the Emperor's New Clothes.... exactly.!! Absurdity, pomposity.... and it is the Truth spoken by a small, insignificant, innocent voice that brings down their house of cards.

The best attack is to make fun of them.... hold them up to the ridicule they so deserve... and there is ample scope for the best wits here on the forum to do that!

In the end if they need to resort to Shocking or Embarrassing the reader, confronting the reader's sense of decency, as per those quoted lines, then they are scraping the bottom of the barrel in terms or being a poet. It shows a lack of ability... .

Good on ya Bob!

Heather

Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Heather » Mon Dec 15, 2014 9:48 am

You probably need to move your soap box to another corner Gary because I don't think they can hear you here. :lol:

manfredvijars

Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by manfredvijars » Mon Dec 15, 2014 10:04 am

I wish I could write verse that scams profitably ...

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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Stephen Whiteside » Mon Dec 15, 2014 12:37 pm

I don't personally find those first four lines offensive. I think it's a good subject to try to throw some light on - the experience of pregnancy and childbirth. I was surprised to see it rhymed, too - ABAB, though the scanning is a little wonky, I will concede.
Stephen Whiteside, Australian Poet and Writer
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Glenny Palmer
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Re: 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for Poetry

Post by Glenny Palmer » Mon Dec 15, 2014 2:36 pm

I agree with Gary. To acknowledge....and even worse award this supercilious tripe, feels really offensive to me, on behalf of the beauty of some of our authentic poets' works. And bugger 'tolerance' for other genres if having to stoop to puerile shock tactics is their forte. (red hair alert!) :evil:
The purpose of my life is to serve as a warning to others.

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