ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Thanks Brenda & Catherine

The poem Catherine is a follow up of a poem of mine called 'The Bushman and the Warrigal' - a true story.

Well done to you all,

It is so good to see that the poets who inhabit this site are such a prolific bunch. The quality of the writing stands up well and is worthy to be considered the 'classics' of the future.

I Hope you are all busy writing your entries for the 'Kembla Flame'. The first place is $500 plus a lovely trophy.
Like most competitions we are there to encourage the writing of our love, that is Bush Poetry. It is also a way of getting our poems 'out there' for others to read. There is almost 3 months to work on a bottler of a poem. I hope you will all be inspired. Entry forms and conditions etc from the events page.

Congratulations Catherine, Brenda and Terry!

Thank you Stephen and Zondrae.
Zondrae, thank you too for the Kembla Flame. It is people like you, keeping competitions alive through hard work, that get poets inspired. I don't write for a competition (in fact this year, with the ABPA Secretarial and being assistant to the President work and being the host editor for Young Xpressions and running poetry events and also because I have been travelling Aus. judging etc at festivals, etc. etc. I don't write at all -- well hardly).
However, as soon as I saw the Kembla Flame the 'Muse' became too insistent to ignore and two sleepless nights followed. So once again, thank you to all written competition co-ordinators. You spur us all on. I know we writers get a lot of slack for entering competitions but we are really competing with ourselves. (We are certainly not competing to earn a living as some think. Just look at the odds.Also, for me anyway, a trophy or a certificate is more treasured than money.) Every time I go in a competition I learn something else that helps my poetry to improve. There are some brilliant writers around at the moment and the bar keeps lifting.
So thank you to all fellow writers as well. Long live our genre.
Warm regards,
Brenda

Very well said Brenda, on every point - this is all so true!

And thank you Stephen and Zondrae from me too!

Congratulations all on your success!

I am way behind the times - courtesy of an email interchange with David, I just found out there are actually three Henry Lawson written competitions on the go.

I entered the one advertised in the Lawsonian newsletter, which I thought was the one based in Grenfell. I didn't know about Gulgong. Now I find out that the one I entered is different yet again - and that there are three written competitions and two concurrent festivals (Grenfell and Gulgong). The competition I entered is based in Victoria, and results will apparently be in the next issue of the Lawsonian.

Maybe they were all listed on our Events page - if so, then I sure missed the point! Never mind - we live and learn and there is always next year

Again - well done all ye fine poets!!

Cheers, Shelley

Thanks Stephen

Terry