ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The classical composer Haydn wrote a symphony which is called The Farewell. In the performance of this piece, as the music goes on, members of the orchestra one by one get up and leave the room until there is only one player left who plays the final notes and then leaves.

Does that remind you of something? Did you say the bush poets forum? Looks like the farewell is not far of.

Last one out, turn off the lights.

Yep! But don't know what the answer is...perhaps more publicity of the forum in the ABPA magazine, maybe more encourgament from us, the regular contributors, perhaps a little more encouragement of newcomers and less criticism of each other and each other's work, maybe a revised page more along the lines that Frank Daniel used to produce????

I can't help but wonder if our obsession with comps. has something to do with it.
Perhaps most are now saving their poems for that reason.

Just look at the members poetry forum and you can see that just few loyal contributors are keeping us afloat.

Perhaps we should just boycott those comps that have the no publication rule - fortunately more comps are now relaxing this rule.
And then of course people who wish to sell books probably want to have a few that haven't been seen - who knows.

Of course it may well be that some of us are now writing a lot less than we used to.

We do seem to have lost something, though it's hard to say just what that is.

Terry

Just maybe Terry, writers should be aiming on writing what people can understand and enjoy instead of trying to write with perfection in their works. Perfection is great for competitions but how many of the everyday people read and enjoyed them, very few I am afraid to say. But you look at children’s books they are pure and simple and humorous, they tell a simple story.
Just how many adults old and young have seen those books and had a quiet grin to them selves.
And this is the secret of reading.

Enjoyment, Thinking of the past, Or the present, And maybe the future

I hope I am not mistaken but it looks as if we do not think about these things and act on what is noticed we all may be relics of the past or great poets of the past kept you interested in what they wrote be they short stories or poems and they wrote nearly as many short stories as poems that made your brain think with the simplicity of simple words just like children’s books do with simple word stories


Bill Williams the old battler

And what do you base your assumptions on Nev ? Postings ?

Posting is not the only thing that happens on the forum,
I visit every day and read every post but may not comment and it really depends on what other things people have on their plate as far as writing new poems goes.

I've been on holidays and flat out catching up with all those things that you do not get time to do when you work full time, plus learning new poems.

I could understand some holding back poems that are in competitions but like me I'm sure they do not post every poem that they write.

I make an effort to do something with every fortnights prompts and do not only post them here but on other sites and we do go through slow periods on them as well.

perhaps a bit of Hanrahan creeping in.

Bob

I'm just incredibly busy at the moment but I do pop in and read most posts and comment when i have time or something worthwhile to say. No time to write though.

Thinking a bit more about this; probably what's also happening is that a lot of us who arrived a few years back. have lost a bit of the enthusiasm we had when we first joined; which is natural when you think about it.

You notice that when new members join they are usually very active like we were when we first started.

Perhaps we just need to get a bigger intake of new members.

I take my hat off to you Bob, I probably wouldn't read more than 1 in 10 post, but I do glance through to see if something catches my eye; also depends on how much time I've got to spare.


Cheers Terry

I wasn't assessing any individual's contribution. Everyone is different.

The overall appearance of the forum is that of declining activity.

There's no doubt about that Neville

And I thought you were simply stating the obvious and never though for a moment you were casting aspersions mate.

At the moment we do have a bit of a tired look about us.

Terry

Same here Neville. I was just giving one explanation why people aren't writing as much and I know there are other reasons for other people - illness, family and work seem to be the main ones.

I agree with Terry - the newbies come with fresh enthusiasm and brighten the place up and that's the way it has always been. Some people simply run out of things to write about - or take up new interests which take up a lot of time - guitar or ukulele for example