Understanding Required - Blackened Billy

[Dave Smith]

I suppose ya could make it 12 if ya said “S t r a l y a”

Oh dear sorry Mum they made me do it.

TTFN

[Dave Smith]

Warooa said

#@$% footy

is that the right spelling?

[Mal McLean]

Well, that started a **** fight, didn't it? But all very civilized.

What did I get out of it? I have to do it my way and still try and conform to the basics of good metre and rhyme without turning my verse into something which is only technically poetry. At the end of the day I just have to be satisfied that I have written something others will enjoy and if a judge likes it too, then so be it. Or, to put it some one else's way:-


My Peter's Way

...and now, the end is near
and so I face the final verses.
My friends, I'll say it clear
I'm just not sure which the worse is:-
To rhyme the rhyme that's full
and measure each and every metre
or less, much less than this, just rhyme with Peter!

Regret, I'm sure you knew
had a colt, best not to mention,
the Roaring Days or Post Hole Mick or Hanrahan, or conception.
I planned each structured rhyme and carelessly inserted metre
and worse, much worse than this, I rhymed with Peter!

Yes, there were rhymes, I'm sure you knew,
that really stunk, well, worse than poo
and judges then they have no doubt,
they tear it up and throw it out.
I had to fail if I turned a tale, on rhymes with Peter!

I've wrote, edited and cried
and tried to kill my fear of losing
and now, my nib is dry, I'm thinking of, self abusing.
To think I'm old and fat
and may I say, a carpet beater,
just so, oh yes just so, I'll rhyme with Peter!

For what is a poet, what has he gaut?
if not a rhyme than he has naught.
To write the rhymes he truly feels (and not the lines he flamin steals).
The Judges know my poems blow and rhyme with Peter!

(from an original idea by Songwriters: Revaux, Jacques;Anka, Paul (Eng Lyr);Thibaut, Gilles;Francois, Claude)

Mal the Oldfart

[Neville Briggs]

Quite right Neil. The other thing though , is that if the winners become the judges then the next lot of winners will be those who conform to the judges ideas and so it all becomes a bit inbred if we are not careful.
That's why I reckon we have to from time to time, have judges who are not bush poetry comp winners or performers.

[Neville Briggs]

That's it Marty, inbred. The judges pick the winners, the winners become judges who pick the winners who become the judges who pick the winners who become the judges who pick the winners......
I am not suggesting any lack of integrity just that this process inevitably leads to a certain style or approach predominating and a samenes starts to prevail over all the " winners ".

Judge X prefers long story poems , assumes they have most merit , picks a winner who does long narrative poems, winner thinks long narrative poems are the best (after all he won with a long poem), as a winner he becomes a judge who chooses winners who do long winded narrative poems. etc etc etc.

In the end anyone who doesn't write long rambling narratives in verse need not bother to enter bush " poetry " competitions, and the bush " poetry " comp. anthologies will become filled with tedious yarns fourteen and fifteen verses long with every irrelevent and humdrum detail spelled out in the dreary tramp of end stopped rhyme and laborious language chosen to force a sprawling yarn to fit a rigid metric pattern.
And like the little boxes made of ticky tacky, they will all look just the same.

Imagine what a difference it would make if for once, a sonnet was chosen as the winner of The Bronze Swagman or the Blackened Billy award.
Sonnets have carefully placed rhyme and meter and can be written to speak about an Australian subject.
Why not.

[manfredvijars]

Do you really believe that's the way the judging happens Nev?

Have you read any "Bronze Swagman" anthologies?

I don't believe those broad sweeping statements have any real basis in fact ...

[Neville Briggs]

I have read the Bronze Swagman and a few other anthologies Manfred.

Vic Jeffries brought up some very good points about judging bush poetry and I have been pondering on what he said.

What I have put above is just a hypothetical example of how things could go if there is not a variety of approaches from those who influence what is accepted as high achievement.
Do I believe that judging happens that way ? I don't really know how judging happens exactly, but I believe that it could be influenced that way albeit unwittingly if the judges were always drawn from a small circle of award winners. And I emphasise again I am not commenting on anyones integrity.

Isn't it a fact that a main qualification for being a bush poetry judge is that the person concerned has won several major competition awards.

The reason why I picked long stories as my example is that, I saw that the winning entry in the Blackened Billy was 72 lines and the Bronze Swagman winner in 2009 was 102 lines long. That fact alone doesn't mean it is good or bad writing but it makes me think that it's not much use going in these things unless I can write some long saga , which I can't , so I don't bother to put in entries any more.

Of course , there are a lot of considerations in assessing good writing. It's just that looking at the published winners, longness seems to stand out as a major feature, and that seems to be the approved way to go to be recognised in the bush poets as a worthy writer, at least in the recognised major awards.

Sorry to make you cranky Manfred, I feel a bit disheartened about poetry competitions these days.

[manfredvijars]

NO ... not cranky Nev, you bring up good points worthy of discussion AND robust debate.

Just wondering how shetland ponies would fare if they were competing in equestrian events ... or draught horses for that matter ... Maybe there are different events (and judges) to cater for those genres?

I too have read many Bronze Swagman anthologies and have been captivated by stories that fell short of 'winning' but were still published on that tome.

A few dedicated judges may take umbridge to some of those remarks ...

[warooa]

I agree Neville . . and the judges comments by Veronica Weal in the recent magazine vindicate your stance. She said:

some entries were very short and although poems don't have to reach the line limit given, it's advisable to take advantage of the chance to fully develop a story line or theme

Am I misconstruing that by hearing 'write a good short poem by all means but a good long one will trump it'.

Marty

[Kym]

I don't think Veronica meant that entrants HAVE to reach the maximum line limit, she's just saying that some poems have the beginnings of a great story, but need to be filled out a little. Kinda like you could be impressed wih a black and white sketch, but add a bit of colour and it would take your breath away.