ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Some people say that free verse stinks, it’s not their cup of tea, it has no metre and no rhyme, and only seems to be a bunch of arty-farty types who toss their words around at random, like a winter wind spreads leaves across the ground. “It’s rubbish, crap, a pile of junk, for poetry it’s not, and I refuse to try and read such awful bloody rot!” But others say that rhyming sucks, it’s not their cup of tea, it’s all that dum-de-dum-de stuff, and only seems to be a bunch of country bumpkin types who send us all to sleep with endless talk of kangaroos and billabongs and sheep. “It’s out-of-date! It had its day a hundred years ago, it’s stilted, clumsy, forcing rhymes, and simply doesn’t flow!” And I would say they both have faults, but that should never be the reason to just walk away, for then you’ll never see what each can offer to us all, the chance to look and learn what writers, with their varied skills, can give us when they turn their hand to setting down their thoughts, their insight, hopes and dreams, for poetry, in any form, is much more than it seems.


Some people say that free verse stinks, it’s not their cup of tea,
it has no metre and no rhyme, and only seems to be
a bunch of arty-farty types who toss their words around
at random, like a winter wind spreads leaves across the ground.
“It’s rubbish, crap, a pile of junk, for poetry it’s not,
and I refuse to try and read such awful bloody rot!”

But others say that rhyming sucks, it’s not their cup of tea,
it’s all that dum-de-dum-de stuff, and only seems to be
a bunch of country bumpkin types who send us all to sleep
with endless talk of kangaroos and billabongs and sheep.
“It’s out-of-date! It had its day a hundred years ago,
it’s stilted, clumsy, forcing rhymes, and simply doesn’t flow!”

And I would say they both have faults, but that should never be
the reason to just walk away, for then you’ll never see
what each can offer to us all, the chance to look and learn
what writers, with their varied skills, can give us when they turn
their hand to setting down their thoughts, their insight, hopes and dreams,
for poetry, in any form, is much more than it seems.

Some people say that free verse
stinks,
it’s not their cup of tea,
it has no metre and no rhyme,
and only seems to be
a bunch of arty-farty types
who toss their words around
at random,
like a winter wind
spreads leaves
across the ground.
“It’s rubbish, crap,
a pile of junk,
for poetry it’s not,
and I refuse to try and read
such awful bloody rot!”

But others say that rhyming
sucks,
it’s not their cup of tea,
it’s all that dum-de-dum-de stuff,
and only seems to be a bunch of country bumpkin types
who send us all to sleep with endless talk of kangaroos and billabongs and sheep.
“It’s out-of-date!
It had its day a hundred years ago,
it’s stilted, clumsy, forcing rhymes,
and simply doesn’t flow!”

And I would say they both have faults,
but that should never be the reason to just
walk away,
for then you’ll never see what each can offer
to us all,
the chance to look and learn
what writers, with their varied skills,
can give us
when they turn their hand
to setting down their thoughts,
their insight, hopes and dreams,
for poetry, in any form,
is much more than it seems.

David

What size spoon would Sir care to order?

high five!

You can really do that with any poem if you are so inclined ?

Bob

G/day David,
To be fair to Bob, I guess what he's saying in his own way that this is supposed to be a Bush Poetry forum and there are plenty of other free verse forums to visit if that's what people want.
The only reason I suggested that there may as well be a special spot for Free Verse etc is that it keeps popping up anyway.
I suppose if we continue to wave a red flag at those who don't agree, we will probably only end in causing resentment which would be a pity.
And Bob is right in one important aspect, this is a Bush poetry Forum and perhaps we should have canvassed more widely and not just on the forum, even though it was done with the best intentions in mind.

Cheers Terry

That's true Terry but we also have a spot here for jokes, pictures and tales. None of those are bush poetry either. That is simply because people here do dabble in other forms of poetry and they want to share it with their friends. If we had a strictly bush poetry site we'd have to get rid of all those other topics too and then we'd miss a whole lot of shared moments, ( footy, cooking, fishing, grandchildren, pets etc). What bush poets probably don't want is to encourage non-rhyming only poets - then it becomes a different site, but I don't see any harm in rhyming poets sharing other things they write (whether it be tales or other forms of poetry).

Heather

G/day Heather
Bobs not protesting about jokes nor is anyone else as far as i know, not that I ever go there anyway.
In fact the only thing I hear about really, is the odd grumble about someone putting up something about free verse.
The reason I suggested this in the first place, was to keep it right out of the rest of the forum.

Sure we have the odd dispute among ourselves but it's never as far as I know about the various forums on this site.
As I've said before it doesn't worry me one way or the other, but perhaps on reflection we were a bit hasty and should have tested the water a little more first.

Cheers Terry

So being "general" poetry discussion . . . is that inclusive of free verse?

David I liked your opening preamble, very incisive and enjoyed your first poem. The second poem lost me though.

Cheers, Marty

Personally, I can't see how it does any harm to have some free verse on the site. I have never liked it much, so I'm probably not going to read a lot of it. The main value to me of reading free verse is to remind myself why I like rhyming verse so much.

By the way, does anybody know if there is a free verse web-site/forum that works as well as this one does? I have a notion - probably entirely erroneous - that rhyming verse brings people together in a way that free verse does not.

G/day Stephen,
You could be right.
just going on what seems to happen here the advent of free verse on this forum seems to be doing the opposite and has caused some friction, which I think is a pity.
Perhaps we should have a poll of the whole ABPA membership to truly gauge opinion, not that you would probably get many replies but at least it would be democratic.
It has always been a contentious issue that causes hackles to rise.

Perhaps it's time someone started a new site along the lines of those who want change and leave the poor old traditional Bush Poets to their own devices.

Terry