ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

...''stage natzi''.... ...what a cracker of a term!... I love it Vic.
(geeze, I sounded a tad cranky...really, I was just in a hurry...)

Sorry I 'wandered off' your thread Neville. It's a wonderful subject as now it's clear that my reputation for 'looooooong' yap is undeserved, what with all those blokes rambling on for mega pages....

No apology needed Glenny. We always get away from the thread . It's like the old mind map, leads off into all sorts of interesting directions ( sometimes

Actually, I think that the discussion is an important one. I went to a
" walk up " a few years ago where the "special guest" poet went on for about an hour and a half.
This person talked an endless patter about their history, their experience, their awards, their opinions, their friends. Then recited a large number of long verses. The themes of the verses were, their garden, their family, their trips, their house, their pets.

When the other poetry performers who had been invited to participate were finally allowed to have a go, in the hearing of the audience they were sternly warned by the "guest" to keep to five minutes each, as time was limited.

There were some people in the audience who had never been to a bush poetry event before, they told me after, that they were most unimpressed by this example of bush poetry performance.

oooh, oooh!

I bet I know who it was..

That doesn't sound like a very good format for the walk up at all, Neville. It might have worked better if their feature performer did a couple of poems then they got someone to slot in in between before the feature poet's next poem or two and kept it going in that format - if the feature poet had to miss out on doing a poem or two that way, so be it. It is probably a bit of a catch 22. The organisers would have been paying the feature poet, I assume, so they probably wanted them to do the bulk of the poetry - to get what they perceived was their money's worth from them. If the feature poet's poems were mostly about themselves and were long winded, I could see how that particular format you have mentioned would be very tiring on the audience. I guess that is why it is a good thing as a performer to steer away from poetry that is too much about yourself.

Regards


John Peel

I agree with you John it is often a catch 22 situation and I would advise anyone that is employed as a featured poet at a Poet's Breakfast or a "Walk Up" to play it by ear.
On the one hand the poet is employed as such but on the other he/she is also expected to act as MC and produce a good all round show with the available talent.
It is often a fine line between hogging the microphone or producing enough good poems to satisfy the crowd in between pretty ordinary and dull walk ups.
My over ruling principle is to make sure everyone gets a go even if it means my time is limited to one poem. They, the walk ups are the people that we are trying encourage and together with their partners they usually form the bulk of the audience.
I have never forgotten the excitement and anticipation I used to feel as a novice while waiting to be called to the stage and how important I felt afterwards. Neither have I forgotten how we beginners and also rans used to watch every move the MC made and how we would silently bridle at any perceived favouritism shown by that person or wastage of time meaning we could not get a second go!
Unless there is insufficient poets to fill the allotted time I would definitely limit myself to a maximum of three poems and more probably two although as I said at the beginning it is always a matter of playing it by ear.

G'day Vic, John and everyone,

When I am one of the poets on the programme for the day, I take my lead from those who were my guides when I started at festivals.

Vic, - on the occasions that we have shared a stage, the formula you introduced me to seems to work well.
As more often than not, I am first to arrive I take down the names of those that I know from experience, in the order that they arrived. Then if there were any new faces I would go and ask if they wished to do a poem and put them on the list with some sort of intro for the MC to use (eg from Wombara, or very nervous). We usually have an hour and a half or two hours to fill. With two MCs it is easy to get in a poem or two each and still get through the list. The first MC up says one poem then introduces the first name on the list, and continues on as mc for about half an hour. Then introduces the 2nd MC who does one poem then introduces the next on the list and keeps going for about half an hour. After this they re-intro the first MC who does a poem and carries on with the list and so on til the time is up. We usually get through a list of up to 25 poets.
The only place I have known to not get through the list at least once is at the National FF where I have seen a list of forty plus for the Saturday morning. -