Almanac Poetry: Rampantly Bad Poets’ Society
The Passion of Creation, by Leonid Pasternak, 19th century, exact date unknown. [Source: Wikimedia Commons.]
Rampantly Bad Poets’ Society
They sit around the lounge room
at their monthly meetings
reading the tripe they write.
One old man gets misty-eyed
reciting his bush ballad
– one hundred years out of date, mind –
about a faithful dog that died
leaving his tearful master,
a crusty, weatherworn droving type,
bereft of his only worldly companion.
He deserved to have
his sheaf of papers
shoved up his arse and rotated.
Another reader
at this deplorable gathering,
a senior lecturer in English,
used the word ‘deconstruction’
fifteen times in a thirty line poem
– he should have known
the word
is taboo
when it comes
to writing
poetry.
The final reader
at this lamentable
conspiracy of profane souls
did the bloke-in-the-wheat-town-gum-tree-shtick,
where the noble farm labourer
read Paradise Lost every evening
in his bungalow
by torchlight,
freight trains rumbling by in the background.
This ‘poet’ would not have agreed
with the grey-bearded wonder, Father Marx,
about the ‘idiocy of rural life.’
… I left the monthly meeting
of The Rampantly Bad Poets’ Society
determined to write about them
in tercets,
with no rhymes
whatsoever.
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, is available HERE
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About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
Ha Ha! Good one Kev, but crikey, we’ve all been to a night like that, and got thrown out for laughing!
Ah – the good old days, Jim!