ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Thanks for those kind words David and Matt.

Many thanks to David & all, for this most interesting information. When I am not hammering up guttering etc I'll have a good look at all of those avenues to circulate our work.

Goodness me Gary...I now consider myself formally hugged & kissed! Thank you too for your kind words. I guess the mere fact of our being poets is largely facilitated by passion...so we can all express ourselves rather passionately, especially when there's a bone to pick. Ever onward....now where did I leave my hammer?...........

Thanks, Matt, I'll take that word "poet" anytime. But so should you. Not to turn this into a mutual back-slapping exercise, but your writing shows exactly that same free-verse style of complexity as Mal's. For example, here are some lines from your 'This Goodbye':

Shod with love, I’ve walked unmarked by proof’s demanding glare
the roads of learning one must walk alone.
Though failure’s miles guard wisdom’s inch, your faith has let me dare,
the doubt to which the self is ever prone.

One of the distinctive features of free verse is the yoking together of words in unexpected ways that make you think..."shod with love" and "failure's miles guard wisdom's inch" are most unusual for bush verse (and the "bush" purists would reject the whole poem anyway)...so we're challenged to dig deeper than mere narrative in order to understand the meaning. That's the sort of thing that lifts poetry above the ordinary.

I've ploughed through scores of turgid bush poems that re-tell some story from history...maybe about a bushranger or an incident in a country town...but there's nothing in it except rhyme and metre. And I wonder: "Why bother?" Nothing has been added in terms of perspective, insight or emotion. It's just a story that rhymes. Compare what you've written with the following few lines from one sub-section of the free verse poem (called S.O.S) that won the 2012 Josephine Ulrick Poetry prize (worth $20,000!).

love is a selfish life
a furniture expressed
by a self-important orbit

a space for leaves
letters
masterpieces of sunlight

a corner made from a straight line
and every reliable loss

You're "shod with love" but here love is a "furniture"...both unexpected images that require thought, and which can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Love is also "masterpieces of sunlight" and "a corner made from a straight line"...all sorts of ideas are provoked by those simple words put together in unusual ways.

Now here's Graham Fredriksen, also writing about love, in 'The Other End of Time' (this site can't handle Graham's spacing without using dots):

....... I looked into her eyes and
....... I could see the fires burning:
a thousand thousand lifetimes and the childen yet to come:
....... Reality horizon’d
....... with its hazel edge adjourning
down ancient, hallowed pathways to the endometrium.

That's powerful, evocative writing ("Reality horizon'd/with its hazel edge adjourning")...and I'd bet it's the only bush poem ever to use the word "endometrium" (the membrane lining the womb).

So if we're talking about common ground between free verse and bush poetry I'd argue that it's already there in some of the work that appears on this site. All we have to do is recognise it.

Cheers
David (happy hammering, Glenny!)

And ain't that poetry David. I'd argue that we have Australian poets as good, if not better than Lawson and Banjo - it's just that only a lucky few have discovered them or appreciated them.. ... so far.... Matt, Mal and Graham amongst the best I have ever read - and I enjoy their writing far more than some of the better known poets.

For what it's worth I have to agree . . . as much as I enjoy reading old trad bush poetry, I get a greater pleasure out of reading some choice Fredriksen, David Campbell or Matt MacLoughlan amongst others - there's a real natural lilt and a way with words and rhymes that works.

Bridging the gap perhaps?

....even in non-poet-ing he's lyrical. My Muse bounced to life from just reading, Matt. You're a treasure.

I want some of whatever Matt's on!

Yep, it's sheer magic to play with words, watch them join hands and see them dance together.

Yes Matt.. words (and assembling them) are magic! well said!! precisely.

The joy of words, written and spoken, and what coalesces from them.

Word-works such as fiction, poetry, lyrics, speeches. Within those groups such as fiction, of course there are sub-groups all co-existing. Science fiction, romance, mystery, historical novels. Diversity.

Words... joined up and arranged in many different ways that give pleasure to people.

.. but naturally, consumer Tastes are different.

A work of fiction that someone raves about, "Oh, you simply MUST read that book" may be un-appealing to another. We have all been there I think... "I will lend you this novel ... you will love it." We are all guilty of that..?

Same with music in its many forms. Now I have a big vinyl collection and you will not find one classical record there. It is not my TASTE in music. I have a relative who always has loud classical music playing to the point of distraction. She denigrates my musical affinities, and subtly attempts to force Beethoven's Fifth on me. Volume up.

Now this is when we get into dicey waters.

Snobbery... as Glenny mentioned. Elitism in a way. The belief that one is so correct in poetic areas that there is no room to understand that TASTE is individual. Dangerous stuff. Like opinions... there is only one right one and that's mine. Same with religion I guess.. and art, and politics too. TASTE.

I joined FAW looking for fellow-travellers in poetry, only to find it dominated by one particular area of poetry that was not at all to my liking or comprehension. I scanned their journal to find some rhyme. Nothing. I also used to scan the Age newspaper "Literary" supplement for rhyme. Nothing. Some fellowship, I thought.

I am trying the ABPA as a common-interest poetry group because as an appreciation-society it offers (I think) a strict adherence to balladry... the sheer discipline of rhyme and meter and words that are skillfully strung together to make simple sense and entertain. Purity. Bush poetry. Balladry. RHYME. METER. Discipline and skill in writing... using those tough game-rules. Lawson, Paterson. NOT a cryptic crossword, or an intellectual challenge. Acceptance of and respect for the varying skill levels of writing too... encouragement to those who love that style of writing and TRY. All that is MY THING.

Now I had no particular fight with the FAW advocates of free verse.... until one of their senior intellectuals, as a publicly-paid judge and who represented (spoke on behalf of!) the Arts Minister of Victoria who in turn reports to the Premier... publicly called Henry Lawson "a drunkard". (I did not see that judge's portrait on Australian's ten-dollar note btw). They fraudulently called their Award the C.J. Dennis Literary Award.

An unprovoked literary attack does not come any worse than that surely? "A drunkard". You do not have to be a Rhodes scholar to figure out the implications of that statement for aspiring Rhyming Poets. Bush Balladists.

Those trumped-up lackeys who travelled using the credentials of great poets such as C.J. Dennis while stabbing them in the back at the same time received my total contempt then. Not unreasonably some might say.?

From then on life changed for me. Lines were drawn.

I had no hesitation in equally verballising my contempt for Free Verse. No fear. Just as others can feel free to espouse its virtues, and criticise rhyming poetry. At a Bush Verse prize-giving ceremony I overheard a gentleman from the Henry Lawson Society say "Free Verse is like playing tennis without a net." Brilliant.

Like music, even in Bush Poetry one acclaimed poem may not be particularly liked by others. Hey, that's life.

It may well be that as David says one has to plough through scores of bush poems ... but honestly, it is finding a real GEM that is the reward for that forebearance. It can be so worth it.

I am a Bush Poet. That is why I am here.

The elegant feature of "Bush" Verse is that I am NOT challenged to understand its meaning and I have no desire to be. I suggest that like 99% of the population, I want to read for enjoyment. Not be challenged.

There is no common ground between free verse and bush poetry. None. No middle ground.

David Campbell's quotes ..."shod with love" and "failure's miles guard wisdom's inch", "a corner made from a straight line". I simply do not understand any of that, and what I do not understand I tend to suspect is humbug. There you are! Said. But then I have never claimed to be an intellectual... just a simple fellow..a bush poet and no more.

A Singer Of The Bush... of the people I love.

SUMMARY :

So Literature and Music.... many different forms that give pleasure.

A poem, as David Campbell I think implies is not automatically good because it is "bush" or rhymes. It may well be that there is a lot of "ploughing through" to do...

When we enjoy something, naturally it is difficult at times not to understand why others would not love what we Adore. In My Opinion one can acknowledge that we have differing tastes without having to lie about seeing virtues in poems where we see none, just to feel part of some crowd, or be otherwise intimidated into being untruthful. Like "The Emperor Who Wore No Clothes" .... call it as it is. If it is unfathomable nonsense or just a collection of buzz-words.. then be unafraid and call it rubbish.

In a perfect world we can say we don't like something and leave it there. Forums tend to encourage more than that. The Why's. Free speech. I don't like free verse because.... Robust and Good. Humour too.

From the rich and extensive English language you can hang together words... but I love them hung with rhyme and meter and sense and occasionally good humour. Skill. Great Stuff.. and yes UNBEATABLE too.

If free verse gives some people pleasure then that's good. Just that it does nothing for me. As I have said before, some of it only makes any sense after a few beers or when you read it from end to start, backwards, which reflects no great credit on the author of the piece.

Henry Lawson was not a drunkard... he was first and foremost a Literary GIANT .... an awesome guy. If he was ever a drunkard it was only a hobby... part-time thing you know. If I stood alone to defend him, where others would not or lacked the spine to do so, then that was ... No Problem at all

Thank Christ for that . . . this thread was in danger of being a "love-in" for Matt with all the women-folk gushing over his loquacious epithets

I think Gary has basically said "each to his own . . but free verse sucks".

Marty

Haha.. well said Marty!

You have summed up in a line what it took me a page to say.

Have you ever thought of becoming a Bush Poet??