I couldn't help it .... HAD to share ...

[manfredvijars]

Yep, sorta like religion - those who have been bathed in the waters of the Holy Cosmic Billabong and those who haven't ...

[warooa]

There's obviously something in that water (and I'm not talkin' bout sheep carcasses and kookaburra wee)

Marty

[David Campbell]

Yep, you're right, Marty, it's...

Stardust

In the darkling cosmic waters
where tomorrow meets the sky,
and the moonlight is a beacon,
let us wander, you and I.

We will take the road less travelled,
where a ray of hope still gleams,
and we’ll find a new day dawning
in the stardust of our dreams.

© David Campbell, 22/04/12

[Heather]

aaaaah, loveerly...

[Glenny Palmer]

Marty....it's obviously David Campbell in a wetsuit & goggles...with a waterproof pen.

[Neville Briggs]

I think Manfred that this discussion has unfortunately been based on a category mistake.

I suggest that it is not the informal style that makes free verse a difficult proposition but the incursion of the post-modernist mood.

There is plenty of "free verse " which is intelligible and poetically sound. The stuff done by Les Murray, Suzanne Edgar, Geoff Page and Judith Wright for example is nothing like the stuff that you have depicted here.

What has removed such poetry as informal verse from the public interest and acceptance is the influx of post-modernism, which has also had a baleful effect on the visual arts. In fact I think you will find that Les Murray is held in contempt by the so called avant garde poetry writers because as a literary editor he has resisted the influence of the theatre of the absurd that permeates so much of the contemporary trendoids offerings.

The real anti-poetry out there is not free verse, but post-modernist hallucinations.

If you think that what I am talking about is just some esoteric babble for egg-heads, I'm afraid not. It affects us every day in lots of ways, the post-modernist mood underpins what we call political correctness and that has changed the face of our culture.
To it's detriment I fear.

I think it was Shakespeare who said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Whoever said it was right, and the post-modernists know it.

[Bob Pacey]

Yeah um I think !!!


Well no I don't really ????



Bob

[warooa]

I agree Neville - I thoroughly enjoy a lot of Bruce Dawe and Les Murray free verse.

Have you heard The Bedroom Philosopher's "I'm so post-modern". It's hilarious! Here's the lyrics:

I'm so postmodern that I just don't talk anymore, I wear different coloured t-shirts according to my mood.

I'm so postmodern that I work from home as a surf life saving consumer hotline.

I'm so postmodern all my clothes are made out of sleeping bags, I don't need pockets, I'm a pocket myself.

I'm so postmodern I go to parties I'm not invited to and locate the vegemite and write my name on everyone.

I'm so postmodern that I write reviews for funerals, and heckle at weddings from inside a suitcase.

I'm so postmodern I'm going to adopt a child, and teach him how to knit, and call him Adolf Diggler.

I'm so postmodern that I break dance in waiting rooms, play Yahtzee in nightclubs, at three in the afternoon.

I'm so postmodern I only go on dates that last thirteen minutes, via walky talky, while hiding under the bed.

I'm so postmodern I invite strangers to my house, and put on a slide show of other people's Nans.

I'm so postmodern I went home and typed up everything you said and printed it out in wingdings and gave it back to you.

I'm so postmodern I held an art exhibition - a Chuppa Chup stuck to a swimming cap, and no one was invited.

I'm so postmodern I make alphabet soup, and dye it purple, and pour it on the lawn.

I'm so postmodern I request Hey Mona on karaoke, then sing my life story to the tune of My Sharona.

I'm so postmodern I only think in palindromic haikus – “Madam, I, Glenelg, I'm Adam!”

I'm so postmodern that I sit down to wee, and stand up to poo, at job interviews.

I'm so postmodern that I dress up as Santa, in the middle of August, and haunt golf courses.

I'm so postmodern that I cut off all my hair, and knitted it into a beanie, and threw it off a bridge.

I'm so postmodern that I stole everyone's mail, and cut them up into a ransom note and hid it in a thermos.

I'm so postmodern I take my lego to the supermarket and build my own shopping trolley, and only buy one nut.

I'm so postmodern I wrote a letter to the council - .I think it was ‘M.'

I'm so postmodern I bought a round the world plane ticket, and stuffed my clothes with eggplant and pretended it was me.

I'm so postmodern I've got a tattoo of my pin number in hieroglyphics on my neighbour's guide
dog.

I'm so postmodern I fought my way into parliament and made a law banning Nuttelex, and then moved to Spain.

I'm so postmodern that I iron all my lettuce leaves, put my shirts in the crisper - they're real crisp.

I'm so postmodern I give live mice to buskers, dirty tea towels to the Mormons, and pavlova to crabs.

I'm so postmodern that I live in a tent, on a platform of skateboards that's tied to a tram.

I'm so postmodern I write four thousand-word essays on the cultural significance of party pies.

I'm so postmodern I recite Shakespeare at KFC drive thru, through a megaphone, in sign language.

I'm so postmodern I'm going to watch the Olympics on a black & white TV, with the sound down.

I'm so postmodern I go to the gym after hours, push up against the door, then cry myself to sleep.

I'm so postmodern I wrote a trilogy of novels from the perspective of a possum that Jesus patted once.

I'm so postmodern that I marry all my friends, soak myself in metho, and tell them that they've changed.

I'm so postmodern I bought every book written in 1963 as a reading challenge, and clogged up a waterslide.

I'm so postmodern I think I might be a god in my undies rolling in sugar, in the carpark of a rodeo.

I'm so postmodern I prerecorded this song, and laced a message subliminally telling Shane Porteous to buy a smock.

[manfredvijars]

I don't recall seeing those verses in the "Book of Banjo" or "Henry by the Billabong" ...

[David Campbell]

Must be a fountain pen, eh Glenny?

I'm so postmodern I think free verse is too expensive.


David