What have you published so far?
I have released 4 collections of poetry and a number of chapbooks. My first full length book came out when I was 18. In May this year (2025) I published a young adult verse novel called, “The Foal in the Wire”, and that is something I am extremely proud of.
What are the underlying themes and ideas which characterise your work?
I do have underlying themes, repeated themes, throughout my work. I would also say that during my career, while my work deals with the same topics, as I have matured as a poet I have been able to fully realise in my later work what I was aiming to do in my earlier work.
Mental illness is a major theme, Depression in particular. Survival is a big part of that discussion. I think there is a strength, as you are navigating the world and your life within it, in investigating that life through poetry in particular, but through art forms generally.
I would suggest that there are other important elements, such as distance, that are required in order to write about difficult subjects. It is usually very hard to write about a difficult subject like Depression while you are actually experiencing it. You need life experience, and some distance, to be able to offer insights into those types of subjects.
How do you fight the tendency to have poetry about mental illness come across as highly personalised?
I like poetry which is transgressive, challenging. I offer imagery which can be extremely confronting, taking people to places which are nightmarish and surreal in many ways. It should always feel authentic and real. I was told by the great Melbourne poet Pi O that the raw material can form the basis for the poem, but the work has to be put in to create the poem. If you don’t put in the work you end up with a diary entry and that simply isn’t effective.
Poems about things like Parkinson’s disease for example, I wrote a poem about my grandfather who became ill with Parkinson’s, require an approach which tackles both the larger topic, ageing and deterioration, and the smaller topics of the specifics and the personal experience. How the disease presents itself.
To me a poem must also raise philosophical questions; so how is it that a human being can do such extraordinary things throughout their life and then deteriorate to a point where they are almost childlike. If the poem doesn’t have that balance, it just won’t have impact in a way that I think it needs to.
Are there any poets who have influenced you?
Because I read so much poetry I really could list off many poets who have played some sort of role in my development as a poet, but Sylvia Plath would be a key figure. I love the confessional poets, generally. Robert Adamson, the great Australian poet, would be my greatest influence.
Where to now?
I am very passionate about writing for young adults and I am writing another young adult verse novel at the moment. Otherwise, for the foreseeable future, all I am interested in is being a poet. And that has been all I have been interested in since I started. I know a lot of people seem to use poetry as a launching pad for other things, novel writing mainly, but writing poetry is all I want to do.
If you would like to see more of Robbie Coburn’s work go to the links below
