ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Hi Marty - God knows I am not a fan of political correctness and agree with you but am a believer in horses for courses - d think one has to pick the mark, something that the young arrogant misogynistic bloke on The Amazing Race around Australia is I suspect about to find out - how he could speak so rudely and patronizingly to his girlfriend and even worse when he knew it was being filmed is beyond me - but feel quite sure he will get his and were I his Mum he would be very soundly boxed around the ears for displaying such appallingly bad manners and disrespect. I suspect he has alienated just about every woman in Australia.

My last word on this.

a poem that ridicules gay people

Where has this come from? Does no body read another poets work before performing it? What ridicule? And clashing city and bush culture is not a great Aussie custom? Treat a subject delicately. Come out looking the fool while the minority group comes out the hero. There are no limits to what we can perform if we have the audiences to prove it by accepting the way the subject matter and humor is handled and presented. Our larger audiences have changed and a lot of us have moved into recordin Australia how it is now and the changing social landscape. Again the danger lies in poor performers stealing the poems and not knowing how they should be interpreted. This poem, for example has won so many performance comps in the past by people I would prefer didn't do it, but they took it on their own back. Yet so many times they still won. I can perform it day in
And day out
At the moment and get nothing but laughter and CD sales. I also do poems on drugs, lepars, religion And old age. Why? It's subject matter I can handle and get away with.
So my final word on this. Imwill continue on as a performer, doing school workshops, judging state and national comps and doing corporate gigs and starting up poetry venues for other poets to be able to perform to. What will I be remembered for? By the sounds of some alleged poor performance by some unidentified person of a poem that a couple of prudes didn't bother reading. But continue on. Each to their own. But I think I am more suited to having fun and taking poetry to the masses around the country and not have to hang around here copping crap over it. I though I may have had some experience to offer here. But alas, I feel like I have stepped into hostile territory here and THAT my friends is why Bush Poetry is at it's lowest ebb since the Charlie Marshalls, frank Daniels and Bobby Millers and co pulled it into the twentieth century all those years ago so you could all participate. But some don't want change and want to stay in a comfort zone which doesn't allow Bush Poetry to flourish these days as it should be.

Good luck with you future poetry endeavors and may you help take it to a new Australia.

Yours sincerely

Neil McArthur

If we curtail or, stifle our language, we limit our thinking, and we're collectively chained to a downward spiral. Freedom of thought does not mean freedom FROM expression.

My 'thoughts' regarding the PC-thought police, if someone takes offense where non is given, directed or implied, then they're the fool (and a bloody idiot)!

As poets we have many tools in our collective bags, satire and humour among them. We also have a unique view of the world and 'see' things differently to the masses. Maybe it's 'difference' that is universally being discriminated against?

If our language is stifled our thinking will also be limited. Then the 'wowsers' and thought police would rule the world .... Oh, sorry, they do already ... please disregard every word I just said ....

(name withheld)

We really seem to raking over old coals I feel. The choice of poems will always suit the audience and I myself have had no problems apart from the occasssion as mentioned in the other forum.

The problem is as far as I can see in the presentation rather than the poems which we all know are great.


If we keep doing the same things al the time we will get the same result so those who are game will always cover new ground.

Good onya Neil

Bob

manfredvijars wrote:My 'thoughts' regarding the PC-thought police, if someone takes offense where non is given, directed or implied, then they're the fool (and a bloody idiot)!

Quite so Manfred. The trouble is, post-modernist deconstruction has infiltrated the thinking of our society. You might think that term is just a silly academic nerd-speak but it is an insidious poison that has spread through our culture to an extent that most probably don't realise. In simplistic terms, what it means is that no matter what the message is that is given, no matter what the stated intention is, the message is what the hearer decides the message to be.

There may well be no offense given, directed or implied like you said, but if the hearer decides that offense is there, then post-modernist deconstruction holds that offense is there.

So Marty, raging at the PC brigade will have no effect they are firmly in control, and they have been working towards that end for years. And Neil, if they choose to find offense, they will find it . What you mean is of no interest to the post-modernist controllers , only what they decide you mean.

manfredvijars wrote:If our language is stifled our thinking will also be limited. Then the 'wowsers' and thought police would rule the world .... Oh, sorry, they do already ... please disregard every word I just said ....

I hate to say this Manfred. You are right.

So, there really are two Martys!

Let's forget about two Martys
Let's forget about two Martys
Let's forget about two Marty's
For they both are the same one !!!!!


Bob

Martyboy wrote:its just having that chameleon like ability

A simile ! excellent work Marty, similes are essential ingredients for the poets craft.

Just echoing Keats' 'defense' of "The Gay Farmhand"

The clashing of city and bush culture has been a great Aussie custom - taka a look at "The Man From Ironbark". both subjects were treated delicately enough such that the 'status quo' came out looking the fool while the minority group (gay farmhand & shearer) came out the hero.

There are no limits to what we can write and perform. Nor should there be, we poets have a powerful pallet at our disposal. We have the power to move people to laugh, cry and even anger. It's our calling to hold up a mirror to ourselves. If the subject matter is 'icky' (for some) but if it has Truth, then PC police be damned, just tell it like it is!!

Diverging slightly, there is no shame in the title, "Bush Poet". It reflects our cultural roots and declares our style - unashamedly Rhyme and Metre.

For all the 'free-verse' that's being written and performed, I cannot name one contemporary Australian 'standout' (free-verse) piece. Yet Turbulence, The Mr Whippy Van to Rain from Nowhere, Reversals, The Ballad of Darkie Lee are known around the Country - the city AND the bush.

On another note, Václav Havel is a Czech poet, playwright, essayist, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989–92) and the first President of the Czech Republic. Even Barack Obama is a (rhyming) poet.

We're in great company.