ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

G'day Bill,
I was searching the crowd for you. You missed a great weekend.

Some of the 'mob' present and reciting were: (who to put first!!!!) David Campbell, Carol Reffold, John Peel, Jim Brown, Stephen Whiteside, Jan Lewis, Annette Roberts, Betty Walton, Geoffrey W Graham, the current NSW Champ Jenny Markwell, Peter Mace, Lorraine McCrimmon, Barry Lake, and 'Arch' Bishop. This is only those who spring to mind. There are so many good reciters that I'm sure to have forgotten someone. Then there were the once a year 'walk up' poets. It was good to see very few reading their poems.

On Monday, I co-hosted the PB with David Campbell and we got through 33 reciters. Not bad for two hours.

Joe, you still hold the record of 37.

And a big congrats from me as well. I too am looking forward to the 'audio' version.

Martyboy wrote:Well done indeed Zondrae allthough the uke playing is a worry

... at least it's not a banjo or a slide trombone ...

... and you know the difference between banjos slide trombones??




Slide trombones don't burn ...

Banjo Player!!!???!!!! Oh no! here is a tribute to him

What hasn’t been mentioned here so far is the other things that Zondrae was doing apart from winning the reciters' award and playing the ukelele into the wee hours. Such as getting to the PB at 7.15 am each day in order to co-ordinate the list of walk-ups and then going on to host the daily Yarn Spinning competition, the latter being no easy task as it requires filling in while the judge does his thing. Zondrae was very busy supporting a range of events, and it was great to catch up and say “hello” after so many years of merely reading about her exploits. Thanks, Zondrae!

Stephen also needs to be congratulated for all the work he put into organising the Spoken Word component of a festival which essentially focusses very heavily on the music. As Victoria was host state, Stephen handled the liaison with Canberra and co-ordinated those of us who were presenters. We ran workshops, put on shows, and generally promoted poetry. The packed-out breakfasts each day were testament to the popularity of bush verse.

And then we could go off and listen to the likes of Eric Bogle and Ted Egan weave their special brand of magic…all in all, a great weekend of words and music.

Cheers and thanks to all the poets who were there for making it such an enjoyable time.

David

Thanks for those thoughtful words, David, and thanks also for your own contribution which was of the same very high standard we have come to expect of you over the years, and much appreciated by many.

While we are on this subject.

David Campbell (and his charming wife) were a pleasure to meet. I was a little stressed at the prospect of performing in front of such an awe inspiring writer. However, he made me feel immediately at ease. The workshop he held on writing poetry was very informative. He answered all questions put to him simply and clearly and we discovered that, even a writer of his experience and achievenment, still wakes up at 3am to jot down a word or two. He gave a little insight into his process of writing. Yes, he does write, put aside, then edit (sometimes more than once).

I had thought he may be able to run a poem off first go and never have to change a word, but he assurred us, he too, labours to get it right. Thank you David for sharing your tips.