ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

To discover the Coral Coast of Western Australia we were heading north of Perth
landscape is rapidly changing from city to sandy west coast for what it is worth
going further along landscape like the moon, with lime stone peaks all round
due to onshore strong winds, stunted trees, growing almost parralel to ground

Traveling Australia nearly forgot visiting the unknown till then, the Coral Coast
where the Murchison River flows into Indian Ocean, town of Kalbarry your host
the climate sunny, warm, experiences that only occur once in a lifetime
wild flowers you have never seen before, exotic shapes, perfumed, sublime

Calm waters in estuaries for swimming, by towering cliffs be awestruck
surfing, water skiing, fishing off beach, catch that big one, just your luck
want more, go canoeing or hire a boat and enjoy a cruising lazy day
see dolphins, whales, up close, take pictures to remember your day

Shopping, accommodation, variety immense, magnificient shopping mall
holiday resorts nor just pitching a tent, emergency services on call
nature lovers, Kalbarry National Park close by, nature's paradise found
glimpses of river, magnificient gorges, their brilliant colours will astound

Interesting views of river, waterfalls, taking many days to fully explore
incredible scenery, rock formations framing river sometimes far below
endangered species of birds, a parrot sanctuary in town, a must see
daily feeding of pelicans on foreshore, stroll downtown or see a movie

Stargazing, songs by campfire, fantastic sunsets, like nowhere else, watch
changing colours of multi-coloured cliffs, never seen such a display match
abseiling, sight seeing flight along coast line, there is an internet cafe
if you have the time, to keep family and your friends informed of stay

Started with Shell Beach, in setting sun white as snow, a promising start
to enjoy holidays at Kalbarry is easy, one doesn't have to try very hard
returning home, stories to tell, adventures relived, it was only a week
wondering why we didn't do it before, must go back for another peek

Great pictures Cas.

Quite a few typos in there which need fixing. Do you do them in Windows and then transfer ? That way you can use the spell check function.

Perhaps if not you could copy this one and paste it to the board and then check it.


John Peel will know ??? John are you out there.


Bob

I'm afraid I cannot understand how this is a poem or even a verse.
My understanding is that poetry and verse essentially is rhythmic , I can't find the rhythm, it just appears to be a list set out in lines with a rhyming word at the end of each line ???

I don't understand the point of doing that ?

Maybe to some people I'm not much of a Poet, not much style, not much metre but that has always been my style and all the years that I've been on the Poetry circuit have always had a good response to my style and not many people have stumbled over the fact that in the strictest sense I should not be classed as a Poet. I'm enjoying what I'm doing, that's what life is all about, and have had some good comments re my poems. Thank you both for your comment. Cas

G'day Cas and Bob

To answer what Bob was saying about spell checking, some browsers will do this for you. If you use Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, both of these have in-built spell-checkers. These programs are free and can be downloaded from Mozilla's or Google's websites. You just download the file and run it to install the program. I am currently using Google Chrome and have tweaked the settings to check in Australian English instead of the default spelling in American English. Otherwise, you can copy and paste from word and do the spell-checking in there if you are more comfortable doing it that way. You can also edit your posts after you have made them if you notice any errors in spelling or grammar (just hit the edit button at the bottom right hand corner of your post).

Regards


John Peel

Yeah John exactly what I was trying to say.


Bob

G'day Cas . . . I see where Neville is coming from - as a written piece it reads very awkwardly but as Marty says - if you get positive feedback from your reading/reciting then that is all that matters.

As for spell check - it's great but as with the spoken recital it will not pick up the miss-spelling of place names such as Kalbarri.

Cheers, Marty

Hello Cas,

Great pictures inside this poetry, and the rhythm is there, trying to get out.

If when you read it to your self aloud, every place you pause, put a comma.
These little curls tell us when to pause, they reveal the rhythm of your story in rhyme, especially when read for the very first time.
If you do not want to use a comma, when you pause, you could start a new line.
Your verses will have eight lines instead of four and every second line will rhyme.
That can help reveal the rhythm as well.

When I travel west next time, you poem could lead the way with the descriptions you give ,

Thank you for sharing your visions,

Worddancer

G'day folks, Re my style of poetry, have never have met anybody that when I have read some of my Poetry has come up and said, "that's not poetry, it has no metre, not rhyming in the strictest sense". However there was always enough response to make me carry on with my hobby. Did any of the great Poets have all sorts of rules put upon them when they where writing poetry? Not all poetry that is spoken is liked by every one it would be a rare world if we all espoused the same things. Maybe the poetry I do is more like bush poetry as it was in the old days. One could go on and on, but why not enjoy the offerings on hand? Have fun and enjoy, Cas

Indeed the great poets did comply with all sorts of complex rules of form.

Shakespeare complied with the form of iambic pentameter in his plays. He complied with the strict metre and rhyming scheme for sonnets. Oscar Wilde and even Dylan Thomas wrote villanelles which have to be written according to a strict form of metre and rhyming scheme.
Amongst others of the bush poetry writers, Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, C J Dennis all subjected themselves to the constraints of the " rules " of metric and rhyming form.
There are plenty of more examples.

Certainly some of them pushed the boundaries and " broke the rules" to suit their purposes.
I have come to believe that anyone is well educated in poetry who can master the rules then bend and stretch them. The great poets did this. Any unorthodox stuff they wrote surely wasn't due to a distain for form and structure or a lack of the required skill to do the job according to traditional formalities.