ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Dancers and poets have a lot in common. They both need to have a great sense of rhythm and flow; without those elements, a dance routine would look wooden and pitiable, and a poem would read as unnatural and tedious.

Don't confuse rhythm with rhyme - the two have little to do with one another. Rhythm is the flow or cadence of the writing; rhyme is a literary device that's used within the poem. And whether a poem rhymes or not, a lack of rhythm can be disastrous.

As a poet, you want to ensure that the flow of your words is natural; otherwise, your readers will find themselves concentrating more on trying to read the poem than on effortlessly enjoying it. One of the best ways to do this as a writer is to be willing to rewrite pieces until the poetry flows as fluently as possible.


Bob

Hey Bob to true, I teach dancing with good rhythm but do you think I can write poetry not a hope.

TTFN

Course you can write poetry Dave, you've just got to take up the pen and begin. As someone has said, if you don't know where to begin. begin anywhere.

Bob, I don't understand the idea that the experience of poetry has to be effortless. I can read the newspaper comics effortlessly, if, for example, I want to engage with Wilfred Owen's poetic masterpiece Dulce et Decorum est, then I have to make an effort.

Wilfred Owens? Was he centre half back for Collingwood many years back?

Wilfred Owen was a soldier in WW1, he wrote very moving poems about the suffering of soldiers in battle and he was tragically killed just 7 days before the 11th of November 1918.

You sure he never played footy?

Of course he played footy - he was an Aussie - he probably played bloody cricket as well Keats - but nobody talks about that, we just know him for his poetry. He had a nice turn of phrase