2012 Val Vallis awards

[Mal McLean]

Just received the following:-

Dear Poet,

Thank you for your entry(s) to the 2012 Arts Queensland Val Vallis Award for an Unpublished Poem.

We received more than 180 entries this year, and unfortunately in this instance your entry was not selected.

Award-winning entries will be announced at the Queensland Poetry Festival Opening Night on Friday, 24 August, 6pm at the Judith Wright Centre Of Contemporary Arts. Results will be posted on the Queensland Poetry Festival website http://www.queenslandpoetryfestival.com shortly thereafter

Now, of course, I know I am not going to ever get the nod for anything written in the classical/traditional style, so why do I enter year after year?

Well, the answer is quite simple really.

I figure that the contemporary poets who judge this event might not see a rhyming rythmical poem from one year to the next and so I consider it my duty to make sure that they see at least one!



Mal

[manfredvijars]

... and I don't see why the 'free' verse aficionados should feel put out when Bush Poets and other 'rhymesters' want to stay true to rhyme n metre ...

'Free' verse is only ONE style of poetry, and it's easy (that's why it's so widely accepted) - there is more than only one style of rhyme AND there is more than only one style of metre ... Anything worthwhile takes a bit of effort.

[Bob Pacey]

Give me thier contact Mal and I'll send them My poem The Problem With SEX, that should stir them up it did for Tamworth ?


Pub humour ???


Bob

[Maureen K Clifford]

Good on you Mal - keep flying that flag. They didn't like mine either

Cheers

Maureen

[Mal McLean]

You tell em Bob and Manny!

Ah Maureen, so they got at least two this year!

Will we see you at the North Pine Camp Oven this weekend?

Mal

[Maureen K Clifford]

No Mal - we have just got Mum home from Hospital after her 2nd Hip replacement. 88 Years old and she is firing on all cylinders. In hospital for 6 days and walking around without the use of crutches or a walking stick, but we have to keep an eye on her and make sure she rests when she should etc etc. So a bit of running backwards and forwards from Ippie to DB over the past week or so and a bit more to come yet.

Maybe next year

[Neville Briggs]

How do you know Mal, that the criteria for rejection is to do with a simple separation of styles. If you read contemporary poetry, which I do, you will find out that there is plenty of ' rhyme and metre ' out there in contemporary stuff. Keep puttin it in, Mal good work.

[Mal McLean]

Well Nev, I can't say for sure of course, but a reading of past winning entries gives me a fairly good notion about it. I make a habit of reading past winners of comps so I have an idea of what is required (sometimes) and the Val Vallis awards are pretty consistent, I would think. Such is life. I also write contemporary poetry at times and never turn my nose up at writing or reading it. I can't say whether the reverse by contemporary poets might be true or not, but i have a suspicion........
Any way, if the works not good enough it shouldn't win no matter what.
Sorry you won't be there Maureen, but family must come first. We will eventually get together, maybe when we North Piners finally get ourelves out to Ipswich fpor a visit.

Mal

[Rimeriter]

"onya" Mal.
Jim.

[David J Delaney]

Good on you Mal, I often enter these comps as well, usually about 2 poems & making sure at least one is a rhyming poem. I wrote this after a 'run-in' with a 'toffee nose'......

Finding the Poet Within.

So you think you’re a poet spending all your time
just tinkering with free verse or some classic rhyme,
or maybe you like haiku, tanka, abc,
some sonnets, or Australian bush poetry.

Perhaps it’s in a couplet, stories you can tell
or could you like the challenge of a villanelle.
An epic might excite, but not an epigram,
might write a limerick while riding in a tram.

Iambic pentameter might just turn you on,
or can one narrative be like a marathon.
Then when you write a lyric, does it tug your heart,
and when you pen some lays, are they a piece of art?

Some idyll poetry depicts a country dream
or does romanticism want to make you scream.
With over 55 great forms of poetry,
to name them all right now is challenging for me.

Because there’s such a choice why study only one,
but learn the disciplines of how they are all done.
Appreciate the work in every single style,
attempt to write them all, becoming versatile.

And don’t stray from this path, one day you’ll make a choice
then find your worldly niche, your own poetic voice.
Some scholars try to push one form of poetry,
they won’t open their minds and let their thoughts be free.

So make sure you can read all of the books you can
on poets and their styles or where it all began.
And keep on learning and accept the discipline,
for one day you will find, the poet deep within.


David J Delaney
24/07/2012 ©