Tuesday, September 26, 2006
micromacro by rob walker
South Australian poet rob walker has just released micromacro , a collection of quirky poems based on rob’s unique perspective on the world.
“Daytime teacher and night-time poet” rob walker has had his poems published widely in poetry journals, anthologies, websites and other media in Australia and overseas, including Best Australian Poems 2005 (ed. Les Murray), ABC radio’s poeticA, the CD Going Down Swinging #23 and a collection sparrow in an airport, (Friendly Street NEW POETS TEN.) In 2005 he co-edited THIRTY, Friendly Street Poets’ Thirtieth annual poetry anthology. He teaches music and drama at Woodcroft Primary School and lives in Cherry Gardens with his wife and “one and a half of his three children.”
“These poems are the pick of my work over the past 3-4 years” says rob. The collection’s a kind of continuous macrozoom on subjects from molecules to millipedes to animals, including the human ones. There’s social and political commentary, my emotional response to kids I’ve taught – and, I hope, humour. Poetry shouldn’t be academic. It should be accessible to all.”
rob walker’s micromacro has already won the City of Onkaparinga’s inaugural 2006 Poetry Unhinged Prize for the Best Single Collection of a local poet. Along with Seaview Press, Salmat and the SA Writers’ Centre, Onkaparinga helped to finance publication of the book.
Other SA poets have been generous with their praise for the collection.
Mike Ladd, poet and presenter of ABC Radio National’s poeticA says "Whether he’s focussing on the minute worlds of insects or big political themes, rob walker’s poetry is witty, incisive and nicely attuned to the ‘mouthfeel’ of language. His black sense of humour is a bonus.”
Prolific local poet Graham Rowlands adds “walker grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pulls you up through a chemical mosaic of earth and ocean until you confront your earliest evolutionary ancestors. Then there are insects, spiders, birds, cats – and the human race. Are people any better than the earlier life forms, the poet asks. In reply he reserves much of his compassion for the young and the old caught in a – web? – of political and commercial institutions. In a variety of old and new forms, walker finds a wide range of subjects variously eliciting his wit, concern, outrage or empathy. He achieves memorable poems through a combination of startling visual imagery and a dialogue with language itself.”
Jan Owen, the Aldinga writer whose poetry and work in Creative Writing education has taken her to many cities of the world has the final word:
“rob walker combines sharp perception, compassion and humour to create crisp intersections of time and place. Airy shortcuts, sensuous imagery, and a warm sympathy combine in poems that range from insect life to human relationships, from landscape to love.”
micromacro is available online from http://seaviewpress.com.au or direct from the poet at http://www.users.bigpond.com/robwalker1
“Daytime teacher and night-time poet” rob walker has had his poems published widely in poetry journals, anthologies, websites and other media in Australia and overseas, including Best Australian Poems 2005 (ed. Les Murray), ABC radio’s poeticA, the CD Going Down Swinging #23 and a collection sparrow in an airport, (Friendly Street NEW POETS TEN.) In 2005 he co-edited THIRTY, Friendly Street Poets’ Thirtieth annual poetry anthology. He teaches music and drama at Woodcroft Primary School and lives in Cherry Gardens with his wife and “one and a half of his three children.”
“These poems are the pick of my work over the past 3-4 years” says rob. The collection’s a kind of continuous macrozoom on subjects from molecules to millipedes to animals, including the human ones. There’s social and political commentary, my emotional response to kids I’ve taught – and, I hope, humour. Poetry shouldn’t be academic. It should be accessible to all.”
rob walker’s micromacro has already won the City of Onkaparinga’s inaugural 2006 Poetry Unhinged Prize for the Best Single Collection of a local poet. Along with Seaview Press, Salmat and the SA Writers’ Centre, Onkaparinga helped to finance publication of the book.
Other SA poets have been generous with their praise for the collection.
Mike Ladd, poet and presenter of ABC Radio National’s poeticA says "Whether he’s focussing on the minute worlds of insects or big political themes, rob walker’s poetry is witty, incisive and nicely attuned to the ‘mouthfeel’ of language. His black sense of humour is a bonus.”
Prolific local poet Graham Rowlands adds “walker grabs you by the scruff of the neck and pulls you up through a chemical mosaic of earth and ocean until you confront your earliest evolutionary ancestors. Then there are insects, spiders, birds, cats – and the human race. Are people any better than the earlier life forms, the poet asks. In reply he reserves much of his compassion for the young and the old caught in a – web? – of political and commercial institutions. In a variety of old and new forms, walker finds a wide range of subjects variously eliciting his wit, concern, outrage or empathy. He achieves memorable poems through a combination of startling visual imagery and a dialogue with language itself.”
Jan Owen, the Aldinga writer whose poetry and work in Creative Writing education has taken her to many cities of the world has the final word:
“rob walker combines sharp perception, compassion and humour to create crisp intersections of time and place. Airy shortcuts, sensuous imagery, and a warm sympathy combine in poems that range from insect life to human relationships, from landscape to love.”
micromacro is available online from http://seaviewpress.com.au or direct from the poet at http://www.users.bigpond.com/robwalker1
# posted by Phillip A. Ellis @ 11:34 PM 
