Dear Jan,
Congratulations on your win. It was a pleasure also to hear the name Roland Robinson again who died in 1992.
I was unaware that they had started this Award in his memory in the Hunter Valley region. I had previously read and loved his poetry, but I had even more pleasure of meeting Roland on many occasions when he visited Sydney 1980-82. He was a charming, intense and entertaining man and very encouraging to young poets like me. Poetry was never a hobby for him - it truly was his identity and I always felt inspired by his example. He really was an individualist and one could not quite categorise a man who was very much a 'bushy' but also wrote ballet reviews. He had also danced. I may be wrong, but I think he was a conscientious objector during the Second World War.
He was also an unpretentious example of the Aussie bardic tradition - able to hold audiences spell-bound while reciting his work from memory, blending it with story and anecdote in such a way as to make the poems woven threads of his poetical speech. His autobiographical writings are also rich resources of Australian life of the period. He was always true to his inspiration - the Australian outback and only made short visits to the city when I knew him.
Again congratulations. Where might we read your poem? Can you post it here?
For those interested, I am posting a bio link(not many on the web) to Roland Robinson:
http://www.lakemac.com.au/CityFacili...boutroland.asp
and a link to some of the earliest poetry:
http://www.geocities.com/greenaissan..._robinson.html
I remember Roland showing me 'Persia Burning' in manuscript form in the early 80s. I don't know when he wrote it. Even when describing urban and political matters, he could never get away from nature:
http://www.lakemac.infohunt.nsw.gov....iaBurning.html
Kind regards,
Chris Mooney
[This message has been edited by chris (edited October 20, 2002).]