ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Stephen's suggestion of a poets' strike (in the National Poetry Week thread) got me thinking, but not in a humorous sense...


The Poets’ Strike

See what you’ve done, you philistines…
the poets have withdrawn their lines!
They’ve downed their pens and quite refuse
to contemplate the lyric muse.

All rhythm has been shown the door,
with simile and metaphor,
while free verse has been put away,
and rhymes will not be on display.

You won’t see ballads or haiku,
the days of villanelle are through,
while limericks are in the bin,
and sonnets simply won’t begin!

And maybe now that verse is gone
you’ll understand the light it shone
in corners where the shadows curled,
to hide from this frenetic world.

You’ve killed the spark of words that caught
the flame of love, a fleeting thought,
a song of joy, a season’s turn,
and all those things for which we yearn.

Instead there’s language, stark and bare,
now stripped of passion, wit and flair.
And that’s the way it will remain
until the poets write again.

© David Campbell, September 2011

Well done David,

As I said, the fact that we may be told we can't write will inspire many poems. I have found that, while I may not always write well, I always have to write. Most of it ends up in the bin but it has to be written in order to make room in my head for the next one. I was thinking of starting a collaboration. I'm sure it would roll on for some time.

and then the blokes and girls who wrote song lyrics pulled the pin followed by all of the people who wrote for magazines and newspapers and a pall descended across the world as gradually the existing words on the internet faded from sight and were no more and no more words were added...Google was no longer your friend because friends share secrets and Google had none to share, and now people wept for a light had gone from the world and they hadn't even realized that the electricity bill was overdue

And not ONE full stop Maureen! And the only capital for Google! The strike begins!!

Bugger off you lot I'm having too much fun.

You can't stop me I'm not part of the union.


Bob

OK poets

form an angry mob and 'boo' at Bob!

OK that's enough striking for me.... I've never been a violent person.
I have to get some sleep.. I have a poetry group to go to in the morning.

I just got home Zondrae, 150 people and a great crowd laughed and cried at the right times.

An hour just floats away when the crowd is such fun.


Still on a high, No Heather no rum either just high on poetry.


Yahooo. Robert Alan Micheal Pacey.

Good on you Bob,

I bet they weren't booing you. You put on a good show. Keep the flag flying.

Hey Fellow poets,
When we strike will we withhold writing or performing? or both. .. and are we demanding double the pay?

Twice nothing is still nothing Zondrae !!!

Bob

ah!

you got the joke then.