ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Hi everyone i was reading a post ? not sure where the judges comments mentioned getting things into the right sequence and I think the comment was something like.

" Thunder does not come before lightning "

As in the thunder rolled and the lightning flashed ? I thought this was rather a harsh judgement as this sequence is not always the case, i was playing golf on Sunday and quite often did we hear rolling claps of thunder and it was not until the storm got closer that we saw the lightning ? Yeah I know I should have been concentrating on my golf as my score showed but ya just never know when the mind might wander !


I can understand if the error related to an historical fact.


Cannot for the life of me find where i read it but what does everyone think ?


Bob

Maybe he just read about it somewhere and never experienced it ....

In a purely scientific sense that's true. However experientialy, in the tropics you hear the thunder well before you see the lightning ...

Who says it has to be chronological anyway? Why not just say 'the thunder flashed and the lightning rolled'? Much more interesting.

I do fear for the bush poetry movement sometimes. In great danger of disappearing up its own nether regions.

God grant me...
The courage to change the things I can,
The serenity to accept the things I cannot,
And the wisdom to tell the difference.

The comment was made by Brian Langley, the judge in the Boyup Brook comp. Here's what he said:

"A few other points which some of the poets need to address include accuracy in natural events, eg. lightning always preceeds (sic) thunder, the new moon does NOT rise in the evening, also the use of terms from other cultures (unless of course, this is obviously intentional as part of the story)"

As Marty says, all judges have their idiosyncrasies...it's a risk you take when entering competitions. A judge who is a doctor will pick up on medical issues (it's happened to me), while one who is a lawyer will criticise legal inaccuracies. Bushie judges will jump on the howlers we city-slickers make. And judges who used to be teachers...well, I'll leave you to finish that sentence, and the challenge is to do it without using the word 'pedant'!

Cheers
David

and don't let us forget the assessors who do your tax returns So does anyone know what judges have a leaning towards dogs?

Thanks David See Manfred I knew I read it somewhere. The bit about doctors is also true for chemists I dropped one in at the local chemist about my pills and had the colour of one wrong but it rhymed , no comment on the poem just the wrong pills colour ??


Bob

Marty is right - judges and their idiosyncracies are a fact of life, but out of curiosity . . are the regular contributors to the various annual competitions aware of who the judge is (and therefore their idiosyncracies)?

I haven't really gone down that competitive path with the stuff I've written, but recently I entered a couple of poems into a comp mainly because I thought they were good enough, and for the purposes of taking advantage of the option of a judges critique. Some points made were enlightening and helpful, whilst some left me a little perplexed.

Since then, several people have mentioned to me that they wouldn't bother entering that competition because they were aware of the judges idiosyncracies. Obviously it's impossible for all judges to remain annonymous and you'd be crazy to enter a competition with the knowledge of who is adjudicating and not use that knowledge to your advantage. But how much of this comes into play for those who regularly (and deservedly so) are on the winners lists?

I know I'm going over old ground here and that this has been covered before, but what I'm really after is an inside dossier from those in the know on who's judging what and when and what are their distinctive and peculiar likes and dislikes

Marty

Here you go....I'm happy to expose some of mine!

No.1 (ultimo).........Godforsaken word abbreviations! eg. 'hist'ry'........aaargh!!

'10am in the morning' etc......well, it's not likely to be bloody '10am in the evening, eh?

'he did go', 'she did say'.......

'and to the show we went'......

'It's' is 'it is'. 'Its' isn't.

and in general, 'documentary' poetry writing. eg. 'the setting sun shone rays upon her headstone...' or...'the jewelled blaze of sunset briefly melts upon her name...' Which one is... p o e t r y?

.and while I'm at it......
(Att Real Estate Agents)...'separate' is spelt 'separate'...not 'seperate'

(Att Check-out chicks). When you slap my change down onto the palm of my hand...notes & receipt first, and the loose coin on top....I AM UTTERLY DISABLED!......because I am a woman, & unlike blokes, with pockets, women are holding a purse in the other hand, awaiting their change...hence two full hands are fully engaged. If you give me the notes...first...my fingers can then grasp the notes while my hand holds the coin...& I can once again...FUNCTION. Not to mention how bloody RUDE it is to theoretically 'chuck my change at me as quickly as possible' to get rid of me pronto & move on to fleecing the next 'customer' in the line.
Anyway.......I've got that sorted now...when the check-out chick comes at me with this 'technique' I just.......pull my hand away, & it all falls on the floor!! She then has to rummage around re-gathering it, & becomes FAR more conducive to my request for respectful consideration. Yes.

(a mild 'tangent'....but when one is on a roll.....

Why do we assume that language needs to be somehow logical or always have strict placement of elements to be effective as language. Mathematics might be like that, language isn't like that. We ought to be aware that English is horribly illogical and slippery at times.
And poetry is about language.

Our friend who objects to the thunder preceding the lightning also says that " the new moon does NOT rise in the evening ". In actual fact, the moon does not " rise " at all. As the earth turns on its axis, the moon comes into view.

I think it would help the quality of the bush poetry competitions if we could be confident that the judges understood the difference between what is literal and what is literary.

I think it was Ezra Pound who said of language and literature." Accuracy is not truth "