A Journal of Australian & International Cultural Reviews, News and Criticism.
Robyn Rowland is an Irish-Australian citizen, living between Ireland and Victoria for over 36 years, and working in Turkey since 2000, Robyn lives in regional Victoria. In December 2019 – March 2022 she was back living in Australia, caring for her father who died at 102. Her most recent book is Steep Curve (Five Islands Press, 2024).
This is a collection brimming with life, love and humour. These poems assert their independence while acknowledging their cohesion. They are parts of a greater whole.
Thanks to the much-appreciated revival of 5 Islands Press, led by poets Mark Tredinnick and Steve Meyrick, we now have Steep Curve. Robyn is meticulous not only about the writing itself, but she is scrupulous about the publication of her poetry. She takes the work of publication seriously and insists on it being perfectly presented on the page. So her books are also beautiful objects.
Her assuredness shines through in the extraordinary craft of the poetry—the handling of line, image, enjambment, phrasing, not to mention her voice. But it’s also there in the book’s subject matter, which might be regarded as somewhat remarkable in today’s landscape for its indifference towards the faddish. What I mean to say is that Robyn’s poetry delves, in its assured way, into universal phenomena like aging, family, love, grief, which are explored, of course, from her own deeply personal perspective.
How do feminist activism and poetry come together? Through knowing the world’s cruelty, through acting against it, through writing it into you and out of you, so that there is no doubt that both love and hopelessness ride together.
Robyn Rowland, an Irish-Australian citizen, has been living between Ireland and Victoria for over 30 years, and working in Turkey since 2009. In December 2019 she returned to NSW, caring for her father who died 2 years later at 102. She has 14 books, 11 of poetry, most recently Under This Saffron Sun – Safran Güneşin ltında, (Knocknarone Press, Ireland 2019) and This Intimate War Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915 – İçli Dışlı Bir Savaş: Gelibolu/Çanakkale 1915 (FIP, 2015; repub. Spinifex Press, Australia, 2018), bilingual with Turkish translations by Mehmet Ali Çelikel. Mosaics from the Map came out in 2018 (Doire Press, Ireland).
Robyn Rowland’s poem, ‘Golden flight’ to Bob Adamson, from the west of Ireland, concludes Rochford Street Review’s Tribute issue to Robert Adamson
As this book is dedicated to John Foulcher’s brother, Ian, nothing can be underestimated about the tinge of grief as each poem flutters in and out of a sense of religious faith and that’s faith’s challenges. The moon landing, the paintings of Crewdson, and physical love, the body is paramount as our capsule and here it is presented in its ragged faults and its skin passion.
Rochford Street Review 