rob walker



Review Short: Rob Walker’s tropeland

South Australian poet Rob Walker’s latest collection, Tropeland, is exceptionally playful. Puns and wry twists in language are balanced with humour and a self-conscious sense of otherness, the speakers always slightly displaced from their subjects. Walker is not pessimistic in this process however; there is a consistently optimistic tone throughout Tropeland, as well as a canny awareness of failings and ironies in life.

Posted in BOOK REVIEWS | Tagged ,

Norfolk Island Pine

in the Pacific your point of origin a speck of pollen but a diaspora delivered you to every beach resort your trunk adolescent slim-muscled, smoothskinned with occasional acne and zits your substitute leaves scimitars of baby claws, stockwhips for the …

Posted in 59: GONDWANALAND | Tagged

Against the Grain

If your face was a piece of wood I wouldn’t know which way to plane it I say. The right side of his mouth curls into a ghost smile. Yeah he says my grain goes all over the place. I …

Posted in 57: MASQUE | Tagged

beyond black & white

before dawn even flowers are grey till magpies, monochrome flautists, pipe in the colours

Posted in 40: CREATIVE COMMONS | Tagged

at the experimental art foundation

first rain in months what little hair i have plastered on my scalp as i cross the wet city to leave some copies of micromacro at the dark horsey          growing from the grating framed in red brick and aluminium is …

Posted in 31: SECRET CITIES | Tagged

The truth about everything

expressed digitally the answer to everything                                  is one. or nothing.

Posted in 27: GENERATION OF ZEROES | Tagged

Ethel Malley: Sonnet

Ethel Malley is the sister of Ern Malley.

Posted in 24: CHILDREN OF MALLEY | Tagged

Ethel Malley Strikes Back

Burwood, New South Wales Dear Editors, I am not certain that I am eligible for your competition, but please bear with me. You see, I am the sister of Ernest. I feel compelled to point out a grave error in …

Posted in 24: CHILDREN OF MALLEY | Tagged

Rob Walker Reviews Tony Page

Writing a book of poems about abstract scientific theories is a high-wire act. The danger is that those who comprehend the science may not appreciate the poetry and those who dig the poems may not comprehend the science. Writing a review on this little gem was somewhat daunting, too. To begin with, a succinct review forming an introduction to the work has already been written by one Phillip Adams, whose intellect and eloquence I admire greatly.

Posted in BOOK REVIEWS | Tagged ,

Rob Walker Reviews Deb Matthews-Zott

Poetry about erotic desire is fraught with perils. Just look at some of the worst on thousands of teen websites and you'll get some idea of just how bad it can get! Contrast this with Shadow Selves, Deb Matthews-Zott's latest work, and the difference is striking, showing a sophistication that welds the physical to the intellectual. She achieves all this without resorting to anatomical diatribe. But it's still hot.

Posted in BOOK REVIEWS | Tagged ,

Rob Walker Reviews Les Wicks

Iconic Japanese film-maker Akira Kurosawa (director of The Seven Samurai (1954), remade by Hollywood as The Magnificent Seven; and Yojimbo (1961), remade (or is that ripped off?) as A Fistful of Dollars) is frequently feted as an artist who elevates the common man to hero status in his phenomenal catalogue of work. Reading the work in Stories of the feet made me wonder if Les Wicks is an Australian poetic equivalent of Kurosawa.

Posted in BOOK REVIEWS | Tagged ,