Does poetry feature in your childhood?
The first thing which stands out, regarding any early memories, is my mum reading Banjo Paterson’s poetry to me and my brothers. In Australia, Banjo Paterson would be one of our most famous poets, and my mum would read to us, “The Man from Snowy River”, “Clancy of the Overflow” and “Waltzing Matilda”.
We grew up on a 30 acre farm about an hour north of Melbourne, and my dad was a horse trainer and horses were a huge part of our everyday experiences. Horses feature in Banjo Paterson’s work and that fitted well with our lives.
It sounds like you got support at home?
I had a very supportive childhood, a good childhood, which might be surprising given the subjects I write about. My mum was a really big reader so there was always books around. She was a massive “Lord of the Rings” fan so she would read to us from that and “The Hobbit” as well. That encouraged me to read books.
I was very young when I decided I wanted to be a writer. Once you start reading, once you catch that bug, then the logical step is that you want to write your own stories. I remember being very interested in fantasy writing and darker subject matter.
Did you get support at school?
Yes, I did get support at school and I had some really wonderful teachers. When I was in Grade 4, around 10 years old, I had written a “novel”, and my teacher sent it to a really big publisher. I got a letter back from that publisher and it was very encouraging because although they didn’t want to publish the “novel”, they encouraged me to keep going. At that time I was writing prose not poetry. I can definitely say that I was supported and encouraged to write at school.
What about college or university?
I did about a year and a half of a Creative Arts degree but I had already started to get published by the time I started that degree. I was first published at the age of 17 and I think I felt I didn’t really have time for school, which was of course foolish. All I wanted to do was write, and by that stage I had discovered poetry, and I just wanted to write poetry. I was, and still am, completely obsessed with poetry.
How did you develop your craft?
Reading. I read as widely as I could, as obsessively as I could. I just read and read and read. And through that process I picked up all the elements required to craft a poem. I can remember reading a story about Ezra Pound and he said when he was a teenager, that by the time he was 30, he was going to know more about poetry than anyone else in America. I was just as obsessive as he was.
Reading obsessively was your way into writing poetry?
I think the more reading you do, the more work you put in, you develop a feel for what works and what doesn’t. What lines work and what lines don’t. You also develop an ear for the musicality of poetry, the musicality of words. You get to know what the rhythm of poetry is and what words work in terms of the sounds of the words. But you have to put the work in. You need to be dedicated.
Effectively, you were self-taught?
Yes, but a lot of the poets I admired didn’t come from an academic background. They weren’t immersed in that system, and because I looked to them, I never thought I needed to go through the academic route to be able to produce good work.
What about the structure and form and other elements of the craft of poetry?
I have a very unorthodox approach in that I operate on impulse; when the inspiration strikes so to speak. When I am writing a poem I am shaping the poem as I am writing it. I edit as I go. I will write the bulk of the poem pretty quickly, but then I will edit, stripping any excess out. If a line is not working, if a word is not working, it has to go.
I think I know what I am doing and yes on occasion I will misfire but I work in a methodical and meticulous manner until I have what I know is a good poem.
Editing is the crucial element for you?
You have to be meticulous about it, you have to remove what isn’t necessary, and you have to be self-critical. Because I edit so heavily, I think, as I said, I know what I am doing. By the time my work is ready to be seen by other people, it is completed. There is often no interaction with anyone else until that piece of work is ready to be seen by the public.
If you would like to see more of Robbie Coburn’s work go to the links below
