ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

This is a (hopeful) response to Neil's "Are we dying as an Association?" thread.

A Poet’s Voice

There’s so much in our world today
that needs a poet’s voice,
a quiet word that tries to say
that we must make a choice
between a life that feeds
on fear, or hate, or grief or pain,
and one which takes a path that leads
to signs of hope again.

There’s climate change, which needs a plan,
and poverty world-wide,
disease that shows the hand of man
cannot yet match his pride.
The Middle East is torn apart
by ancient hatreds still,
while drink and drugs lie at the heart
of frailties that kill.

And yet if I should try to write
a verse about these things,
to try to cast a little light
on what such sorrow brings,
so many people seem confused
that I should turn to rhyme,
as if a law has been abused,
some sort of written crime.

“That rhyming stuff is dead and gone,
it’s past its use-by date,
so give it up, don’t waffle on,
it doesn’t resonate!”
And yet, if they take time to sit
and hear a poem through
they’ll often grudgingly admit
they’ve learnt a thing or two.

“All right, not bad, I’ve changed my mind,
that poetry’s okay,
I never thought that I would find
it relevant today.
So maybe I might take a look
at other things you’ve done…
I see you’ve brought along a book,
so why not sell me one?”

And slowly, slowly, over time,
in places here and there,
as people are exposed to rhyme,
they might begin to care,
to see that our poetic voice
is still alive and well,
and offering another choice…
the stories that we tell.

© David Campbell 19/12/15

Very true David. Often the uninitiated do enjoy poetry when exposed to it and find they are surprised that they do enjoy it.

Heather

Well said indeed, David !!!

Well done David

It's getting past the many distractions that occupy the minds of most to-day that maybe the hardest nut to crack.
Phones for starters.

Terry

There you go Terry, perhaps we should put more poetry on the phone. ...

I have never understood why people pooh-pooh poems that rhyme. Rhythm and rhyme are soothing to the ear, and when they are as cleverly written as this piece, I am sure that as more people are exposed to poetry they will grow to appreciate it.

Lovely poem, David

I'm not sure of the point you are making David.

The sociologist John Carroll thinks that popular culture has declined because doubt has become pervasive and grey has replaced black and white and people are becoming anxious in the face of absurdity and futility. Nothing there about any particular form of art.

The comment that Carroll makes that could relate to bush poetry, I think, is his opinion that contemporary art has lost touch with stories about real people facing life's trials and has become just a display to shock. ( Quadrant, November 2015 ). I think he is right.
What I mean is that bush poetry should have the means to regain that story of real people in the familiar human experience. If we can hold on to that then we should survive and even flourish.

I don't think issues about form or style are really that relevant.

Thank you for the positive responses.

Neville, the point I'm making is the same one Clive James makes in Poetry Notebook 2006-2014. In an essay on the poet Stephen Edgar (who writes rhyming verse) James says: "We can say that Edgar suffers from the peculiar Australian critical climate in which it is widely and honestly believed that a rhymed poem in regular stanzas must be inhibiting to a sense of expression that would otherwise flow more freely."

James is referring to the dominance of non-rhyming verse (what he calls "free forms") over metred, rhyming verse ("regular forms"), and a little later he writes: "There is a place for free forms: they no longer have to justify themselves. There should be a place for regular forms too, but they now have to justify themselves every time."

It is that regular necessity for justification that needs to be broken down by increasing the general public's familiarity with rhyming verse that tells "stories about real people facing life's trials" (to quote your sociologist). We are telling those stories, but the challenge lies in finding ways to get that recognised and celebrated in the broader community to a much greater extent.

Cheers
David

OK. I've got that book of Clive James", I'll have another read.

Excellent poem David - very well said. For my part, over the years I have been fortunate enough to meet so many of the general public who definitely do prefer rhyming verse to free, and for that I am thankful because this has always been my first love. No matter what sort of debates go on, or any lack of interest or patronizing comments about this form that may come our way, I for one am determined to keep it alive wherever I am and in whatever small way I can - always.