ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

hear hear !!

Does this mean I can't bring to the symposium my Beethoven records, and Mozart CDs
I can wear my Newcastle Knights jersey I hope, it's very warm.

G'day Marty,

Now I have heard a great saying about an open mind ('so open that the brain falls out') but I haven't got a good one about the closed mind. Any ideas?

Oh Marty I find that a bit creepy and I think your blade needs some work done to it as it appears to have developed a lisp .. . we occasionally need to have a comparison otherwise how would we know if we preferred a Range Rover over a Holden Holden may all of a sudden put in a whole heap of new inclusions we were unaware of

Must be honest I have yet to work out how one distinguishes a piece of free verse from a piece of prose - for there don't seem to be any rules as such attached to the writing of it, and whilst on the subject of different types of poetry has anybody come across this one...it sounds interesting, and no doubt if you incorporated rhyme into it as well as metre should not offend any of the tender souls here.

.The Mirror Loop .

The structure of this poem is written so that the poem can be read from the beginning to end ,and then back again from it's end to the beginning. The poem can be of any theme, but must have proper metre.

Plan to have a go at one of these

Cheers

Maureen

Interesting idea Maureen. Sounds like a Neville kinda poem to me!

Heather

Yep! This aint a free verse site! That's why we is here and they are there!
Having said that Marty have you ever read Ian Mudie's, They'll Tell You About Me.
Free verse but there cannot be a poem that contains more references to bush folk lore in existence.

Just one slight query Marty, you said there was a trend and a number of "you know whats" creeping in to the forums. I have a little difficulty locating any, apart from Maureens green one. I cant make a trend out of one. can you ?

Hey Marty - that's the first time I've ever started a 'trend' and whilst over my later years I have suffered a number of ailments having a dose of the pox wasn't one of them Don't et too concerned Mate I doubt it's catching, given the proximity..

Well Marty Looks Like you have done it this time. No free verse at your place you state, Well mate sorry to say some members say my works are free verse and some say it is not. So taking you at your word I will not be bringing my Mike and amplifier and recorder in other words I will not becoming to Laggin

Biggots are hard to enjoy at the best of times

Bill Williams

I don't think there's any chance of some contagion taking hold, Marty. We all know what the name of the game is, a bit of variety adds interest.

There's good and bad in everything Marty.
I know what you mean by modern verse looking like prose, arbitrarily chopped up and stacked vertically. And it gets worse, some " free verse " just seems to be nothing but a pretentious rant by somebody trying to look as bizarre as possible, without any regard for communication or meaning. (by the way, Maureen's green sample is good , I think )

By the same token there is metered and rhyme verse presented that has woeful faults, clanging rhyme, inept appoach to metric construction, stale language, tedious repetition of unvarying end stopping, hackneyed themes. etc. And the ABPA judges have fumed against finding these things in comp entries.

I suggest that the real battle is not between one form or another but between what is done well and what is done badly.

To take a cue from Glenny, I start to break out in an itchy rash when people seem to have the view that it can be explained in a simple formulas. A is not equal to non-A. If you are our friend, A=rhymed ballads, non-A = "free verse " or if you are the enemy, A=modern form, non-A= metre/rhyme verse. It's just not that simple.


Stephen Fry ( The Ode Less Travelled ) tells a very interesting story how a friend of his was certain that Dylan Thomas' poem, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night is a modern free form poem. The friend was astonished that Stephen Fry was able to demonstrate that Dylan Thomas' poem is a traditional form using iambic metre and a strict rhyming scheme. A lesson to be learned there, there is more scope in metred rhymed verse than some of our bush poets seem to realise. We don't need to go anywhere near so-called free form to make interesting and imaginative variations. I think the criticisms of the modernists against bush poetry( quaint verse, Dr Suess rhyme, rancid doggerel ) has more to do with what they see as lack of originality and variety rather than some simple prejudice against rhyme and metre.

At the grand symposium we'll fix all that