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Three Quotes from Robert Adamson
“Well, I guess the plan was to write poetry and publish books and make a living from writing poetry. That was a pretty ambitious plan, I guess.”
The honesty of this quote, and the encouragement it offers in a world where one is constantly told that to want to make money from poetry is in some way wrong, that to expect to make a living from it is ridiculous, gives these words great strength.
“I don’t know if younger poets read a lot of, you know, the poets – the established poets. There was a lot of pretty boring stuff to put up with and to add to, to make something vital from.”
Again, true and honest in way that makes the heart leap. This is not something you will hear from many established poets.
“It’s just if you’re not disruptive everything seems to be repeated endlessly- not so much the good things but the bland things – the ordinary things – the weaker things get repeated – the stronger things get suppressed and held down and hidden.”
And this is my favourite quote of all because it is true not only of poetry but of all art, in fact of life in general.
These three quotes sum up why I think Robert Adamson is such a good role model for any young poet. They speak with such honesty and directness and somehow, an Australian-ness. There is something fundamentally Australian in their attitude, as there is in Robert’s poetry with its deep sense of place.
So, who better to be the first ever official Australian Poet Laureate, than Robert Adamson?
Not all serious poetry is serious.
For a bit of fun I nominated my friend Noah as the first Poet Laureate. I thought his poem here was a good start, a way of deflating the horrible seriousness that sometimes overtakes poetry.
Of course, as everyone who knows me knows, I believe the First Poet Laureate of Australia should be the legend Robert Adamson.
The Bob, as I call him, kept alive a tradition of poetry that includes lyricism and the soul, water, fishyfish, he’s been to jail, his poetry has rhyme and sounds beautiful like a river. And on and on and on I could go…
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The Australian Poet Laureate 