ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Trouble is, Marty, "I like it" or "I don't like it" simply aren't good enough if you're judging a competition or if someone asks for help with a poem. People, quite reasonably, expect actual analysis...in detail!

Matt explained why he didn't like the poem so I set out some of the reasons why I did. It's not a case of "what others think we should be seeing", but what Matt and I saw that might be of interest to others. So you take it or leave it. The only person who really knows is the poet himself...the rest is speculation.

Cheers
David

Ohhhh matt, that is pure poetry - or prose .... and I just 'like' it!!

Seriously, considered and insightful Matt ... Thank you ...

It would appear then, that the parameters of scope (or lack of) for competition could encourage or constrain creativity???

I reckon we're all winners because we much around with words, and that gives us a beautiful insight into who ever it happens to be

That is so true Matt.

I refer back to what Val said earlier and although Matt may have said it in a more eloquent style it is really the same thing.


(I was drawn to Bush poetry because of the ease given each poem with fluid metre and obvious rhyme.
I have no idea on the technicalities of writing poetry nor do I care .
All that worries me that it is easy to read fluidly, has a good story line and that I understand ( with no need to have the Author explain the object) and whether I enjoy it.
Another reason I liked about Bush Poetry at the time of joining (1997) there were no evident politics or egocentric agendas.
Please let us get back to that era where we didn't analyse everything and we enjoyed and appreciated each others efforts.)


Bob

Don't we still enjoy and appreciate each others efforts Bob? Whether people want to enter comps or not doesn't detract from that surely - and if a piece isn't technically perfect most people ( who don't do poetry) don't care about that either if as you say it flows and the story is visualized. That's what poetry is all about but having said that one should always try to do the best they can and if we (poets) didn't have a goal to strive towards then things would always stay at the same level. Most of us are birds but some of us aspire to be eagles.

<<<<<<<< is a BLOKE not a Bird ....

A discussion is not politics Bob and people can learn from discussion. I spent years at school studying English Literature where we discussed, dissected, wrote whole essays and three hour exams on novels, plays and poems - not all of which I enjoyed admittedly.

Just as people either like or dislike anything in this world, including poems, politics and football, some people enjoy a good discussion about those topics whereas others clearly aren't interested.

Heather

You misunderstand me Marty. I am not suggesting that my way is the right way.

I was trying to say something like this;

If you read a poem trying to figure out the story when there is no story you are looking from the wrong angle. if you jeer at free verse because it doesn't sound like Banjo Paterson's verse then you are standing in the wrong place, it is not meant to sound like Banjo Paterson.
If you think that blank verse is no good because it doesn't rhyme then you are looking from the wrong angle because blank verse does not intend to rhyme.
Or I could say I don't like rock music because it doesn't sound like Beethoven, I am standing in the wrong place, because rock music is not trying to sound like Beethoven.
Or I could look at Blue Poles and wonder why Jackson Pollock hasn't carefully drawn something that represents something " real ". What is it supposed to be, I say. I don't like it. I am standing in the wrong place, Jackson Pollock never meant to be representational. I have heard that people stand in front of the painting trying to see " things ". These things are not there.

Each poem has it's own voice. We can like or dislike, but it is a matter of integrity to first try and hear the voice of the poet and what they are trying to say before passing judgement.

Typed up a whole post then bloody Neville jumped in and when I went to post I lost it so in reply to Heather I will simply reply as I always did to my ex.



YES DEAR.

It is a political thing.


Bob