It was a cold, wintery day for my first trip to Ballarat. The venue was an old stable that now served as a pub. A delightful location for a crowd and a weekend poetry performance competition.
The main rules were that the poems were to be our original work, and less than one minute long when performed.
I entered in a few heats with a diverse selection of my poems.
"McDonald's poet" (from my book "Secsy poetry")
"Pain"
"Rued rural rune" (from my book "Country Capers")
"Why I play" (from my book "Forward thinking and a good looking back" - 2nd Edition)
I made it through to the finals, and launched my secret weapon "props and a costume"!
My selection "Ode to Minty" (from my book "Funny Farm"), however, may have cost me the First prize. I got the feeling that one of the judges may not have enjoyed it as much as the crowd did. Bugga!
After the competition I sold out of my poetry books "Forward thinking and a good looking back" (1st edition). It was quite exciting to have a queue of people waiting to buy the books, and asking me to sign them.
After that, a representative from ABC Radio, asked me to recite "Why I play" once more as he recorded my reading, which was played on ABC Radio the following week.
