Page 14 - eMuse Vol.9 No.09

The Betty Olle Poetry Award Melbourne, Till Her

Lanterns Glow Again

To A Battle Hymn We’ll March Back In

WRITTEN COMPETITION

• For traditional Australian rhyming poetry with
an Australian theme. https://www.melbournecb.com.au/
• Open and Junior (12 years and under) sections. Fear had pressed her footprints into Melbourne’s stony hide,
• Open section - First Prize $500 plus trophy. And it seemed there were lesser places for her petitioners to hide,
Runner-up $200 plus certificate. For across its sometimes seedy and its sanctimonious spaces,
• Junior section - First Prize $100 plus trophy. Masks of all descriptions have constricted all her faces.
Runner-up $50 plus certificate. She’s one of the world’s great cities, the pride of our prideful nation,
• Entry fee - Open $10 per entry form (2 poems) But our flag is hanging half mast above the heart of her Flinders
• Entry fee - Junior section - free. Station,
• Closing date - 31st August 2020. Her engines seem more mournful and have dampened down their
speech,
• Entry forms and conditions of entry available And a wind baptised in the Arctic is pulsing St Kilda Beach.
from the ABPA website - events and results page.
• Conducted by the Kyabram Bush Verse Group in Eye contact is rationed, our line of sight’s gone down,
And tears flood the eyes of a dragon at the gates of China Town,
memory of foundation member Betty Ollie There’s a veil across the MCG, her ramparts roar no more,
And her old scoreboards are searching for a score to semaphore.

The Block has lost its bravado and its chilli chocolate serenade,
W.A. Bush Poets And Christ help the clan or country if it’s found that this thing’s
& Yarnspinners man made,
The drums of its mojo in retreat are throbbing at the flanks of
Association Chapel Street,
And coffee’s ships seem scuttled in the air,
SILVER QUILL As some seek out the boss at Saint Patrick’s on the Cross,
As Chloe battens down inside the Square.
WRITTEN COMPETITION But there’s an upside here and it hits you like a message in a bottle,
For there’s that glorious fold of yellow gold called Cootamundra
Wattle,
Conducted in conjunction with WA State Championships
Friday 30th October – Sunday 1st November 2020 The air is shifting up her gears through a deeper blue sky than
Tooday. W.A. we’ve seen for years,
Like the ones we knew when we were pioneers when gold con-
Entries Close Friday 2nd Oct 2020 trolled the throttle.
1. Open Serious } This corrective curve will flatten to a restocking of the shelves,
2. Open Humorous } The Overall Champion Poet will be And in amongst its mix ed menagerie we’ll find we’ve found ourselves,
judged across these 2 categories And with pipes and flutes and kettle drums as Covid’s flag is furled
3. Novice Only for poets who have never won a Bush Poetry To a Battle Hymn We’ll March Back In, to the capital of the world.
Written Competition
4. Junior 5 – 12 years old
5 . Junior 13 -17 years old
6. Local The best poem by a resident of the Avon Valley
Entry Fees: Adults $10 per poem; $5 per critique. Juniors Free.
treasurer@wabushpoets.asn.au

“WA Bush Poets and Yarnspinners Ass’n
c/o Rodger Kohn,
16 Stoddart Way,
Bateman, WA, 6150,

14 eMuse September 2020