ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

I recently had the very pleasant experience of being informed I was to be paid in excess of $1,000 for a poem that consisted only of 28 fairly short lines, and had taken me about twenty minutes to write. What was even more suprising was that the poem had never been published, nor I had ever performed it publicly.

How could this possibly be?

The answer is as follows. Three years ago I received a phone call from a friend who is a drama teacher. She had a request. She was coaching a young girl to recite a poem for an Eisteddfod. For some reason, the girl was keen to recite a poem about a donkey, and my friend wanted to know if I knew any. I answered that the obvious choice would be 'Simpson and his donkey'. 'Yes,' replied my friend, 'but that's a story, not a poem', to which I responded, 'I'll write you one.' Twenty minutes later I emailed the poem to my friend. The feedback I received was that both my friend and her student liked the poem. The girl recited it at the Eisteddfod. She didn't win, but the judge appreciated that she was reciting a poem that had been specially written for her. End of story...but wait!

Two years ago, I started a blog. The idea was that I would post a bunch of poems, together with some information about each poem - why I had written the way I had, why I had written it all, etc. I worked solidly for about three months and posted about a hundred poems, including 'Simpson and his donkey'. At that point I stopped, because I was not quite sure what I was trying to achieve, and was not getting much feedback - at least after the initial burst of enthusiasm from friends.

I have left the blog hanging in cyberspace, however (continued to pay my fees), because the one function it does serve is to act as a sort of 'calling card' for people who want to know more about me and my poetry.

Enter CAL (Copyright Agency Limited). The role of this organisation, amongst other things, is to survey educational institutions to discover examples of written works being photocopied for educational use in the classroom. They then distribute money from a central fund they receive from the government to the authors, according to a formula they have devised.

My poem had turned up on one of their surveys! Twenty copies had been photocopied for classroom use (presumably in relation to Anzac Day), and I was to be paid approx. $50 per copy! Now, this strikes me as extremely generous. On the other hand, of course, I can see that it also compensates me - well, partially - for all the times others have used my work - with or without my permission - without me receiving any payment at all.

The school must have found the poem on my blog.

I feel there is a moral to this story, but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. My suspicion is that there is a great deal of money to be made by poets via the internet if we can just discover the knack. Perhaps this will become clearer in time.

Comments/suggestions welcome.

By the way, if you want to have a look at my blog, you can find it here:
http://www.stephenwhitesidepoet.com/

I've also received some pleasant surprises from CAL, but not for poetry. Various newspaper articles and a short story of mine were photocopied. It's a brilliant idea...sort of royalties for writers...but I'm not sure how systematic the process is. There's undoubtedly a lot of copying that flies under the radar. But it's well worth joining if you think your work is likely to be used in educational institutions, and there's no cost. The CAL website, for those interested, is at: http://www.copyright.com.au/

Cheers
David

Yes, David, I think you're right. It's so random it's impossible to plan around or rely on in any way. Still, it's tempting to try. Clearly, there's money to be made out Anzac Day, but I feel guilty even articulating a thought like that. I guess it's the reality, though. Even though Anzac Day is a public holiday, it's big business. Look at the footy. There's a little voice inside of me saying, "Write a whole bunch of WW1 poems. Cash in!" But there's a louder voice saying, "No, don't do it, Stephen. Don't do it! Don't give in to temptation!" I've always detested the commercial exploitation of the diggers, and what so often seems to teeter so close to the edge of the glorification of war. And I wonder if we've learnt any of the lessons at all, or if we ever will...all of which takes me a long way away from blogging and CAL.

I think it's that little thing called 'Respect' Stephen ... and out of Respect, Honour is given - not taken ...

Well, yes, Manfred, but personally I think it's a lot more complicated. There's a fine line, and I think it's often crossed - but perhaps I'm wrong.

Love your blog Stephen and especially those dog poems 'We put the white ones down' struck a chord as that was how we got our white border collie Anushka out on the property. I've had boxers myself (2) Blossom and Pebbles and they are absolutely delightful dogs to own and terrific for kids - your little family are gorgeous and so pleased that you did find loving homes for the two pale ones

Mu puppies don't mind peas but are not fussed on carrot and yet funnily love coleslaw - go figure

Cheers

Maureen

Thanks, Maureen. Yes, I was shocked at the animosity of the breeders towards white boxers. About 10% are hearing impaired, apparently, and you have to watch their eyes with bright sun-light, or so I'm told, but otherwise they are fine. They have both made great pets.

They do and only a small percentage are hearing impaired. Anushka was prone to skin cancer on the top of her nose as there was no pigmentation there, but she was zinc sticked all through summer when I was there hence her nickname Miss Violet as I used a violet coloured zinc stick.

It is racial prejudice of the animal world. The same as my black lamb Midnight. The same farmer who was going to shoot Nooshy also had Midnight lined up for dog meat and then had me lined up when he thought I had taken another of his dogs.

We did initially have the rest of the mob confused as they thought Midnight was the dog and Nooshy the lamb and for a while that made mustering very interesting (not how my ex described it I have to add) but in the grand scheme of things it all worked out well and Noosh was a great sheepdog as she should have been as her genes were excellent and both parents top notch trial dogs - but still a bullet had we not taken her. Life sucks doesn't it for some.