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Dr Robyn Rowland, Australian poet,  was an international social science academic and researcher until 1996 (see her academic biography). This website covers her current and past work in poetry only.

  

Robyn Rowland’s poetry has always struck for the heart. Open and honest in its emotion, her work tries to capture the struggle of life lived on the edge of feeling. Valuing accessibility, her work has been described as ‘generous and passionate’ with a celebration of the ‘immediacy of experience’ and the ‘poignancy of happiness’.

Following an Irish tradition of the narrative lyric, her work encompasses the moments in life for which we need words; words to act as rituals that hold us. Her themes cover ‘the incompleteness, the unfinished edges of human love’ (Barrett Reid), death in its many forms; breast cancer and depression; language and silence.

Two of her books have entered into the issues of exile and belonging as a third
generation Irish Australian, a theme that emerged in her second book, Perverse Serenity ( a narrative sequence of a love affair with an Irish monk) and continued in a newer form in Shadows at the Gate (after living in Ireland for some time).

Through more recent work, the lives of her children emerge as a shining way forward into experience, as they grapple with issues of a world torn and difficult. Robyn’s second book, Fiery Waters contains some political poems, poems celebrating a love with a younger man, and the breast cancer sequence ‘The Great Way’.

is a book with six sections: ‘Life in the flesh’, ‘Tangled there’, ‘Time-travelling’, 'Bevelled edges’, ‘People place’, ‘The Great Way is n ot difficult.. ’
Themes are political, love with a younger man, travel ing, spiritual awakening, and breast cancer.

Publisher Ron Pretty wrote: ‘ Rowland’s skill as a poet is to combine lilt with passion, musicality with social concern, clarity with depth. Fiery Waters fully deserved its success.’

Perverse Serenity is a book-length narrative sequence on the love affair between the poet and a monk in an Irish monastery.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


This website contains some poems from the books as well as other writings and references to book reviews and articles Robyn has written on poetry only.

This is a new and emerging interest. In her article ‘De-lyricising the lyric?’, Robyn
concludes with her own view on the form of poetry she values: ‘a poetry of connection
and communication.

‘Poetry can animate everything, so that life itself breathes through the line. It remembers passion. ... It can
make us alive to something new or remembered. Coming out of the ordinary or the mystical, it calls us to ourselves; drawing into view the inner working relationships between the conscious and the unconscious; the passionate intensity of the feeling life as well as the corrugated pathways of thought. Using image to speak, it inspires awe at the way the poet can condense experience on the page.... Poetry can inform,
renew, move, uncover understanding, create change’.

Radio Access:

If you would like to hear Robyn reading her work, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National Programme PoeticA aired a full programme on her work on April 9th 2005 followed by a re-airing on January 14th 2006. Robyn was interviewed by Mike Ladd and is heard reading some of her poems.

Others are read by an actor. If you would like to access this go to PoeticA at
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/poetica/

Robyn was also interviewed by Rachael Kohn for The Spirit of Things on 'Inspirited Landscapes’ aired on Oct 3rd 2004. This programme was a lengthy discussion of the role of landscape and its meaning in the work of three writers including Barry Hill and Peter Read. The issues canvassed with Robyn include her continuing relationship with Ireland and the role of spirit, love and and a sense of exile in that connection.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/relig/spirit/stories/s1208806.htm

For audio copies of these programmes see below :
For a CD copy of radio programming more than 90 days since first broadcast contact:
Bill Flemming, Senior Business Officer, Radio Sales

Ph: 1300 765 525 in Australia or 61 (02) 8333 5839

Fax: 02 8333 3975
Email: progsales@your.abc.net.au with "Radio Request" in the subject field.

Write to: Radio, TV and Online Sales, ABC Content Sales GPO Box 9994, Sydney 2001 and provide the name of the program and date of broadcast of the radio program of special interest.

Black and white photographs: Susan Barlow Clifton
 
 
Robyn Rowland © 2005 Robyn Rowland reserves the rights to all work on this website.