Poetry event in Goolwa

A friend of mine Max Merckenschlager has asked me to help spread around the news on the following event. Max and his lovely wife Jacqui have always supported Adelaide Plains Poets Inc , and I am more than happy to support Max and Jacqui for this event.

Babblers

readings and poetic songs

In the Park with the Rotunda

Cadell St, centre of Goolwa S.A.

Saturday 24thApril, 2010

2pm to 3pm

a free concert

featuring the poetry and poetic songs of

Max & Jacqui Merckenschlager

award-winning S.A. writers

traditional rhyming and freeform verse

songs from their musicals and more, including

“Giddyup Donkey”

“Guantanamo Bay”

&

“Sorry Day Song”

50 ‘Reconciliation’ handout CDs containing Sorry Day Song

& 2006 national championship winning bush poem Men Of Skins

A National Poetry Festival event.

Poetry Reading - Gawler

On Sunday 31 January, history will be happening. The Gawler Poetry at the Pub readings begin under new leadership, and the first one is going to be fantastic I think.

There will be the guest poet - Teri Louise Kelly, and Eddy Burger and Maurice McNamara will drop in on their way back home in Melbourne. Add to that the usual great poets plus some who have said they'll come up from the big smoke in Adelaide, and it should be a good crowd.

Anyone can read their own poetry there, just pay your gold coin donation and put your name in the book. There will be a raffle, great staff, enthusiastic committee members and lots of fun. Bring two copies of your poem, if you want you work to be considered for the annual Poetry Reader and don't forget to put your name on your poems!

Bush Slam, Some People Just Don't Get It!

I just read about one viewer of the ABC's wonderful Bush Slam program, who was outraged that there were non-rhyming poems on the show! After I stopped tut-tutting and shaking me head, I heaved a heavy sigh. Not that old one again! 'If it doesn't rhyme, it's not poetry!' Rubbish!

If someone writes or performs something and calls it poetry, then it is poetry! It truly is that simple. Poetry in the bush takes many forms, not just the bush ballad form so loved by people in love with Patterson and Lawson. And the Bush Slam television show was created to introduce the city to the country, and judging by how the country people in the show have voted, they have been loving the poetry that connects with their lives. They weren't fussed about the rhyming or not rhyming in the poem, they were concerned about the connection.

A good poem is a poem that reaches out and says something to you. This is what Bush Slam has done, and I congratulate the ABC so much for producing this show.

Bush Slam Our ABC

Well Aunty ABC has done something wonderful! They've brought the country and the city together and shown the wonders of the former to the rest of Australia. This program on channel Two and 7.00pm is an absolute treasure, once to follow and view over and over again.

The poets connect with the town they visit for three days, write a poem about the town and have their work judged by the people of the town. It is clever, sincere, moving, wonderful. I commend the ABC for having to courage to run with this wonderful program and I hope they do another series, and another, and another!

Aunty, you've done us proud and I thank you.

Entries closed!

The entries for the Life, the Universe and Everything competition have closed. Stay tuned to this site for more information. I can tell you that the winners will be announced at the March poetry reading at the Prince Albert Hotel in Gawler.

I am quite please with the quality of the entries received, but I am sad that teenagers don't seem to think it's cool to go in a competition where they can express themselves and be listened to attentively by at least two adults, me and the competition judge. And hey, there's money in it too!

I am hoping for a better response for the next poetry competition that Adelaide Plains Poets Inc have. Details will be on this website later on this year.