Free verse

[Maureen K Clifford]

I take it the Angry Penguin you are referring to Marty is this - what a hoot

The hoax


Ern Malley was a fictional character created by James McAuley and Harold Stewart. In this elaborately conceived deception, Ern Malley had just died and his equally fictional sister - Ethel Malley - had forwarded her brother's supposed poems to the Angry Penguins editor, Max Harris.

McAuley and Stewart wanted to know whether the Angry Penguins could distinguish between poetry that was 'a collection of garish images without coherent meaning and structure' and the real thing.

Of their 'concocted nonsense', McAuley said: 'we opened books at random, choosing a word or a phrase haphazardly'.

Harris, supported by his colleagues, published 16 of the poems under the cover title The darkening ecliptic . Sydney Nolan even created a special cover for that 1944 edition of the Angry Penguins.

Sydney tabloid - FACT - broke the story and revealed the deception on 5 June 1944, and McAuley and Stewart - whose intention was never to make the hoax public - came clean

.


Bill - I meant no disrespect with my comment - do hope you realize that.

Neville that last comment is sound advice - it stops a lot of foot in mouth disease

[Neville Briggs]

Sorry Marty if I sound like some sort of harsh polemicist, there's limited space here so I try to go straight to the point which might sound a bit hard edged at times.

I was interested in your comment about going along the same track of rhyming when you are trying to write something else.
A couple of the Ern Malley hoax poems have actually been published in recent anthologies. The reason for the inclusion has been given, that James McAuley was such a master poet, that even when he was trying to do a vapid facsimile of free verse, his poetic sensibility still came through and his Ern Malley poems have a lot of poetic merit.

Not everyone was taken in by Ern Malley, mainly the Angry Penguins publisher, Max Harris. Max's friend , the painter Albert Tucker tried to warn him that someone was taking the mickey.

I think it is a valuable exercise for everyone who wants to write poetry, to try and understand about contemporary approaches to form, and even if you don't display them here, use them as a sort of scrapbook or pile of resources for good lines.

Maybe Marty, you need to get into the right-brain/left brain switchover.




p.s. There's an interesting bit of trivia about McAuley and Stewart. When they concocted the hoax, it was done at their workplace of Victoria Barracks where they were army officers. The Officer in Charge of their section was a Major John Kerr, who later became Governor-General of Australia.

[william williams]

it's all right Maureen I just thought that I had better clarify things a bit. the old aunty was 91 years young when she passed away sitting by the door way summer six years ago.

bill the old battler

[manfredvijars]

Back in August 2005 I attended the Queensland Poetry Festival and put down my observations for open discussion on an overseas forum.

This thread prompted me to dig it up and put it 'out there' again ...

Rip it to bits (please) ....

_____________________________________________________
I've been attending Poets Festivals here the last two weeks .. Last
weekend was the Queensland Bush Poets Competition .. and this weekend
is the Queensland Poetry Festival..
http://www.queenslandpoetryfestival.net/
The styles are chalk and cheese ... "Bush Poetry" is fundamentally
story-telling in rhyme and metre
the other style (this weekend) is fundamentally 'Free' verse.

I read widely and, try as I may, I still cannot comprehend modern
'Free-Verse' .. (and I am sincerely trying).

I attended a number of sessions yesterday and of the numerous
presenters there were only two who were memorable .. The first was
Oni, African American, I think. Her performance was memorable because
she spoke about sex, orgasms and such ... however I don't remember the
context .. (.
The second, was also an African American, Miles Merrill, who was
memorable (for me) because he dressed up in persona's .. and had very
clever monologues .. was more of a stand-up comic.

The rest were (for me) forgettable ... I penned the following
'observations' ...
1. Divergence touted as Convergence
2. abominable word usage (inappropriate words as metaphor or simile)
3. the goal is Multiple Metaphors leading to ..
4. Metaphor overload.
5. Meandering in and out of mires
6. Verbal diorrhea is liberally splashed about (I KNOW it's a part of life but I don't want it thrown over me).
7. laziness in language is the norm ..
8. no clever use of language ..
9. 'f__k' and 'C__t' are the norm (used by women)
10. many have nothing of value to say so they try shock, confusion and
then obfuscation.

... and when asked to explain a particular piece, the author feels
affronted and has the fallback (common to all those full of shit) ..
"Ohh, the reason you don't understand my Style because you've not reached my level of enlightenment" (picture "Pearl Pureheart"
about to swoon) Of course I agree that I don't understand, and when
pressed for clarification they excuse themselves because they have to
go away and look for an easier conversation(or do some other totally self indulgent exercise)

Definition of Poetic Masturbation: Where a lot of effort is expended
to make one individual 'feel' good for a brief second; For NO other
outcome or result!

There was a long table full of beautifully bound book/lettes .. so I
asked one of the publishers there, "Who is the most popular author and
where else can I buy their books?" ... their first response was
"Poetry Festivals" and the second was 'select' bookstores. When
pressed for lists of 'select' bookstores he was evasive. I further
asked how many 'published' poets were full time .. the response was
that most poets had to support their craft with outside work (such as
teaching).

So is it only poets who buy (support) each others works?

Many popular "Bush-Poets" are published and even have CDs of their
work ... these wares are Nationally (as well as locally) distributed,
and quite a few are making a tolerable living out of Bush poetry alone
(some even have Tax problems).

I have not drawn any conclusions yet as these are only observations.

I must declare that my preference is STILL for rhymed verse .. and I
STILL want to explore and understand 'Free' verse more fully.

So endeth my rant ...

Yours in Poetry,

Manfred.

[warooa]

So tell us more about Oni

[David J Delaney]

G'day Marty, when I write free verse I think of a very short story with poetic visions & that's how it is written, here is one of my latest....

Captured Moments.

Driving home from work,
radio station is playing our favorites,
the corner of my mouth lifts slightly
into a half smile
as I smell bacon,
cheese carbonara
and satay chicken kebabs;
the computer is still on facebook
my darling, sitting in the papasan,
watching Deal or no Deal.

Now home
I walk inside,
drop my bag on the floor
next to the kitchen bench
then, I start cooking bacon and cheese carbonara
while placing the satay chicken kebabs in a different pan.

The smell is not the same,
the computer and TV are silent,
and the papasan is empty.

I miss you darling.


David J Delaney
22/09/2011 ©

[Zondrae]

Morning all,

I'm sorry Dave but to me this is just a story with the lines poorly arranged. Yes it is lovely and I'm warmed by the sentiment. However of you just took out the spaces are set the words into proper lines it is a very short story, to my uneducated brain, and not a poem.

[manfredvijars]

Near midnight.
The children are all asleep
and she sits there still,
sewing and reading by turns.
From time to time she glances
round the floor and wall-plate,
and, whenever she hears a noise,
she reaches for the stick.
The thunderstorm comes on,
and the wind,
rushing through the cracks in the slab wall,
threatens to blow out her candle.
She places it
on a sheltered part of the dresser
and fixes up a newspaper to protect it.
At every flash of lightning,
the cracks between the slabs
gleam like polished silver.
The thunder rolls,
and the rain comes down in torrents.

The Drovers Wife (Henry Lawson)

[Neville Briggs]

Manfred,


Your observations on the post-modernist attention seekers are probably on target, but it only proves there is bad stuff in everything. I'm afraid one could equally do a devastating critique on some bush poetry events..... I won't try it.

Your tricky cutting up of Henry Lawson's prose to make a point ( that free verse is just prose chopped up), has a slight flaw. Henry was a poet and we could argue that Henry couldn't help but lean towards a poetic sensitivity, even when writing prose. And the way you have made the line breaks, which are important in any poetry, means that lines 5,8,9,12,13,15,16,18,19 and 20 are actually lines of iambic metre and lines 6,13,17,18 are lines of trochaic metre. The other lines sound close to the same meter with some variations.
I think your little demonstration shows, that poetry writing is not as cut and dried and black and white as some people might think. It does not mean that free verse is just prose chopped up, real free verse isn't that. Trust me, Les Murray told me so.

[Neville Briggs]

Zondrae, I would be interested to know why you think Dave's lines are poorly arranged.
Line breaks are important in any sort of poetry, and I think Dave has chosen the lines very well.