Poet Profile

Robbie Coburn

Robbie Coburn is an Australian poet and author who was first inspired to write haiku after reading “In a Station of the Metro” by Ezra Pound. His haiku has been published widely in Modern Haiku, The Heron’s Nest, NOON: Journal of the Short Poem, Presence, tinywords, Frogpond and Blithe Spirit. His work was selected for inclusion in a hole in the light: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2018, edited by Jim Kacian, and under the same moon: Fourth Australian Haiku Anthology (2024). His haiku has also been translated into Spanish and transcribed into braille and added to the State Library of Victoria’s collection. His first haiku collection, blood rodeo, was published by Red Moon Press in 2025. He grew up on a farm in Regional Victoria and now lives in Melbourne, where he is a member of the Fringe Myrtles Haiku Group.

Books Published:

blood rodeo: haiku of Robbie Coburn (Red Moon Press, 2025).

starless sky
the black cord
to the fuse box

mannequins 
in an abandoned store
a blank gaze

the cooling dusk
a man boards the train
in the wrong direction

walking home 
the fracturing leaves 
break the silence

dusk entering the dog’s eyes peer through the wire

from the window
a distant car
carries the weight of air

Credits:

“starless sky” - Windfall 6 (2017); “the cooling dusk” - Presence 60 (2018; “dusk entering” - Blithe Spirit 28:1 (2018); "mannequins" - Under the Basho 2017; “walking home” - Under the Basho 2017; “from the window” - Under the Basho 2017.