ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

... Thanks Matt, figured as much..

Just reading a book of short stories by Joy Dettman (Diamonds in the mud) where one of her characters (a school teacher) says:

The rhythm of a metrical poem can be compared to a heartbeat, but free verse is like the wind in the trees.

I can hear the wind in the trees in this piece of writing.

Marty

Very nice Marty....how well put....love it.

I love that subtle ironic Aussie humour that lingers just beneath the words - great stuff and you can visualize the whole deal so easily, the picture is just there before your eyes. I like it

To me this is a long way from poetry. When similar questions arise I usually write the "poem" out in the style of prose and let it speak for itself. A good poem no matter how it is written will remain a poem. This is chopped up prose with very little if any poetry content.

I love Bruce Dawe's work and though he wrote in rhyme and free verse I doubt he would acknowledge this as a poem!

Vic Jefferies wrote:this is a long way from poetry.

Vic Jefferies wrote:very little if any poetry content.

What makes this a long way from poetry ?

What is poetry content ?

I gave reasons why I thought it had poetry content, why is my input dismissed out of hand without any reasons ?

Vic Jefferies wrote: When similar questions arise I usually write the "poem" out in the style of prose and let it speak for itself.

I love Bruce Dawe's work and though he wrote in rhyme and free verse I doubt he would acknowledge this as a poem!

Vic, I understand your point of view about writing the poem out in prose style - it's an interesting concept which I'm sure you've brought up before (or someone has on this forum) and suitably used appropriate examples.

But I've got to disagree with you - I think the "poem" is very Dawe-esque.

Over to you, Bruce


Marty

ps. here is part of the bio of Roger Vickery, the author of the winning poem (to rub salt into the wounds of those who commit the "rhyme crime" ((hives for Glenny )) ) from the USQ website:

Roger Vickery is a Sydney based writer. Since 2000 he has been placed first or second in over 40 national poetry and short story awards. These include winning the Woorilla Poetry Prize (2004), the WB Yeats Poetry Prize (2003), the Banjo Patterson Open Poetry Award (2003), the New England Review Poetry Award (2001 & 2002).

....are they freaking SERIOUS???....(scratch scratch). So much for the rampant superiority of 'the literati'........ ........now I've gone orf me tucker!

If I lived near Neville I'd pop over & share a whole bottle of Bailey's!!

Heather wrote "a great piece of writing", well I fully agree with that, but as for poetry, I'm not enthused.

Sue

"Taking my father to the Prince of Wales Opera House in historic Gulgong where my free verse poem
was scheduled as a bit player in the Leonard Teale Memorial Poetry Competition was risky..."

Not a lot of metre; rhyme; rhythm; alliteration; assonance; poetic structure or expression here.

This is the sort of "poetry" that has driven people away from the art in droves for the past sixty years.

Very similar to the nonsense that is passed off as modern painting that nobody understands (because there is generally nothing to understand) but are too afraid to say so.