Description
Good Bloke Mopoke is about the owls of history that we keep. It shares poems on relationships, belonging and place. In a language of intimate reference, there is a layering of myth and memory that accumulates into an awareness of how we share with those close to us. With male friendship at the heart of its expression. Good Bloke Mopoke opens up a poetry that understands impermanence and growth as the world around us rotates.
Robert Wood writes in whimsically associative leaps — lyric, comic, reflective, speculative, shaggy, fraternal, wayward. Good Bloke Mopoke refracts life’s curiouser detours, spinning through social observations, political arguments, and cultural critiques in poems broadcasting direct from the bardo. — Charles Bernstein
Robert Wood’s Good Bloke Mopoke feels prophetic, and suggests how true insight belongs to the attentive reader. Spanning generations and perspectives, this collection breaks down and rebuilds concepts of gender, citizenship, and democracy. The book is both a linguistic and philosophical tool, revisiting history and unsettled identities to offer a sharper way of seeing the present. — Autumn Royal
For me, friendship is what takes you through, it holds your hand on the path that is life itself. It is better because we are in it together, even if some of us only whisper rather than sing ‘solidarity forever’. — Robert Wood
Robert Wood lives on Whadjuk Country in Western Australia. As CEO & Creative Director of the Centre for Stories, he has empowered thousands of people to share their stories. The author of two previous books, Redgate and A Guide to Field and Wood, Robert writes poetry to express a connection to the natural, historic and divine world. In 2024, he was the Sir Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop Fellow with Asialink.
FROM THE BOOK
He and he
surged, wind in hair, salt lips, zinc
wave nachos
red hats, fists raised
the relations of leisure, weekenders
downtime, south at Easter.
Caught a bagful of fish later
loafed at the reef
fry feeds with cane liquor.
