Sydney Poetry

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Poetic Injustice

Australian poet, sitting

in the street

on a plastic milk crate

throne . . .

offering reams of rhyme

to passers-by,

he offers, but gets no

takers . . .

only dubious glances.

His conscience proving

too much

for saturday morning

strollers . . .

it seems free poetry can't be

worth much,

they pass by, searching for

something better . . .

something that money can buy.

Between rejections

he writes more rhyme.

P.S. He had a sign 'Australian Poet'

lest he be confused with a French,

chinese, or Norwegian poet.

Newtown, Sydney 2008.

1 member likes this

Comment by Ken Setter on November 1, 2011 at 14:27: Hi william james falls (Bill)

I like it, has the type of irony I enjoy. Sadly it seems an, Australian Poet

is becoming an oxymoron

Good on ya bill

Ken setter

Comment by Dermott Ryder on November 1, 2011 at 16:28: Thank you William – a thought provoking insight…

I recently received the first issue of the ‘Poetry Australia’ journal and I am convinced that ‘Poetry Australia’ is an oxymoron.

May I assert in support of this view…?

Modernoids have swamped the literature with a ‘rhyming is anathema’ philosophy of unintelligible ramblings. I am not against free verse but I believe it should come as ‘gently falling rain’ not as an all consuming tsunami.

However, even now as the ‘stream of consciousness’ brigade herd the emerging poets towards the grey banality of rampant modernism, revolution is in the wind.

I am genuinely amazed that poetry workshop organizers and presenters - and other persons who pay more attention to the ‘modernistic code’ than it merits - are hardly ever murdered. So I wrote this truly awful piece dedicated to the confusion of grief dealing pedants, and they know who they are…

They gave him a very hard time,

your poems, they said, they all rhyme,

the verses are all the same length.

Predictable! Oh Lord! Give me strength!

We don't like spoon mooning in June,

though we do enjoy gloom and doom,

but lines that rhyme are a hideous crime,

make an effort to do better, next time.

Your poems need the freedom to sing,

at the end of the line they should swing.

It might just be us, or the passing of time,

but acceptable poems... no longer rhyme.

Rule bound and pedantic, unable to bend,

the rule makers will get you in the end.

Dermott Ryder - Liverpool 2011

Comment by william james falls on November 17, 2011 at 21:30: thanks David for your words of wisdom, I shall cherish them, I've

waited years for a 'friend' like you, and now you are here. good on ya.

Comment by Ken Setter on November 19, 2011 at 15:45: Every jug have cracks in them, most let the light in. What a shame David Wakelings comments fail to enlighten us. One thing I have learned in my life is that, sugar is more productive than vinegar in bringing people together. We should try it sometime.

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