ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Marty, we are the tail of a faint echo of something that was never of any great importance.

Hmmm, tell that to Václav Havel Stephen ...

I think , Marty, that what you have quoted here from Sartre is a follow on from the philosopher Hegel and his idea of the Zeitgeist or spirit of the age. According to Wikipedia this concept can be traced back to Hindu ideas.

I don't have much confidence in Sartre, as his teaching is the source of such things as the mass murders done by the Pol Pot regime. Sartre also stated that " hell is other people " wrong wrong wrong, hell is the triumph of " me ".

But-but-but Hell IS other people Nev ...

How do we know Sartre was right that hell is other people, because hell IS other people, how do know hell IS other people, because Sartre said so, how do we know Sartre was right, because hell IS, how do we know that, Sartre said so, how do we know Sartre is right.......etc etc etc

Hahahaha ... Loopy God botherers use that logic all the time ...

Many people use that illogic Manfred that's why we should challenge assumptions.

Among the tomes! Among the tomes! Sounds diabolical! Marty I think your quotation is absolutely correct and our (Australia's) problem is that we don't have a poet sufficiently talented writing on current issues and problems in a way generally accepted by the public. Great puzzle to me that we have never replaced the talent Paterson, Lawson, and their contemporaries had to communicate with the public. There is a great void waiting to be filled. It will happen but it wont come from the current crop of free verse writing academics who are more interested in impressing themselves and their toadies.
If Paterson or Lawson were alive today they would be writing and commenting as would CJ Dennis. As an old mate of mine once told me, "Poets write because they have to."

Yes Vic, unfortunately we tend to overlook our talented contemporaries as "prophets without honour".
Only when they're gone do we realise how great their talents really were.

I see the writings of Ron Stevens, our own David Campbell (and Ellis), Andrew Hull as "up there".
Of course there are others, this is by no means a definitive list; but sadly, no more writings from Graham Fredriksen.

Life is unpredictable so let's appreciate eachother while we can (even though the rest of the Country doesn't).

Teddy-bears and Rainbows ...

Thank you Manfred. I agree all of the people you mention and many more who are writing today are very talented writers and as you say are "up there," but we need a Paterson, a Lawson, a Rudyard Kipling, a John Masefield or even a Robert W Service to emerge. Someone with that something that people WANT to listen to, someone who has something to say and says it in an individually brilliant way that is undeniably accurate and appreciated by everyone. As Marty's original quote said, he/she will emerge somewhere, somehow, such people always have, throughout the course of history.