Rob Schackne

Rob Schackne is an Australian poet who has been teaching in Shanghai for ten years

Posts by Rob Schackne

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Post Office

A poem by Rob Schackne

 

In China there's a post office

unmarked on maps, cellar-deep

where you can mail your dreams

(though you might wait for years)

 

True, they go out without a stamp

or an address, but someone gets them

and you know they get read, even

discussed before they vanish

READ ON...

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Instructions for a Dissident

A poem for that time of year, by Rob Schackne

 

First, do not (whatever you do)

organise yourselves into perfect cells

it’s a dead giveaway, other people talk

plus, resist creating any magical crowds

 

Second, do not talk to the bigmouths

even if their conscience is a lighthouse

or if the one you want is really the funny wife

they’ll spill all the beans you don’t have

READ ON...

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To Lu Xun, From The Iron House

A poem by Rob Schackne

 

Locked inside the iron house

Seventeen others are snoring

There are no windows anywhere

No ventilation means we’re dying

READ ON...

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Bar Life

poem for Friday night – by Rob Schackne

 

She sits down too close to me

and orders a bottle of red wine

already loaded fast busting up

with her boyfriend on the phone

READ ON...

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While The Clouds Blow In From The South

A new poem by Rob Schackne

 

Inner Mongolia or Nei Menggu

shares an international border

with Mongolia (of course) and Siberian Russia

it stretches almost two and a half thousand kilometres

READ ON...