Expressing A View

[Terry]

I was reading Heathers post about 'Who's Your favorite Poet' and as we were wandering away from the point I thought I'd continue on from where that sort of ended.

Hi Everybody we’re starting to get away from the original thread, so started this.

It’s always interesting to read the various thoughts of fellow be poets when they express their views on ways to improve Bush Poetry or at least the suggestion that we should be evolving to more aptly reflect our way of life today.

I can only speak for myself but most of what I try to write about is set in the present, it may at times look back at something that happened a few years before but is usually still relevant to to-day. Being a prospector I write a lot about life in the bush, not that there’s anything exclusive about being in the bush. Everywhere you go these days, no matter how remote, you will run into tourist. Australians are no longer afraid to venture even into the remotest areas, and do.

I have always thought that while we all can learn a lot from great poets of the past we should not be trying to write like them. Rather we should be trying to write in our own individual ways. As someone once wrote ‘Don’t try to write like great poets of the past, it’s already been done and better than any of us are likely to achieve’ (or words to that effect)

We all say we write to please ourselves – well maybe – but most if not all of us are also quite pleased with a bit of praise as well and what’s the point of writing if we don’t hope at least a few people will read what we have written.

The further we get into writing the more most of us try to enhance our poems with more involved rhyming and meter configurations and if done well this really can enhance a poem, but it takes considerable skill to achieve this and we shouldn’t forget that a simple ballad written with beautifully descriptive words can take a lot of beating.

Well that’s my two bobs worth,

Cheers Terry

[Neville Briggs]

as we were wandering away from the point

Heaven forbid that we should wander Terry

[Neville Briggs]

Good on you Terry. Sounds good and wise advice to me.

[Terry]

G/day Neville,
I'm always interested in your comments.

Hi Marty,
That will be the day when we all agree, but of course that what poetry is all about and what makes it so interesting.

It's why we have such a variety of styles, pretty boring if we all wrote the same way. The one thing we have in common is (I was about to say love) is a real interest in poetry

Cheers Terry