Selected Poems 1963-1983

Selected Poems 1963-1983

Author	Robert Gray
Language	English
Genre	Poetry collection
Publisher	Angus and Robertson
Publication date	1985
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	155 pp.
Awards	1985 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, winner; 1986 NSW Premier's Literary Award – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, winner
ISBN	0207152586

Selected Poems 1963-1983 is a collection of poems by Australian poet Robert Gray, published by Angus and Robertson in Australia in 1985. ^[1]

The collection contains 99 poems from a variety of sources. ^[2]

The collection won the 1986 NSW Premier's Literary Award – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry. ^[3]

Contents

• "Journey : The North Coast"
• "Kangaroo"
• "The Hospital"
• "The Farm Woman Speaks"
• "Scattered Lights..."
• "Morning"
• "Salvation Army Hostel"
• "Back There"
• "On Climbing the Stone Gate Peak (Hsieh Ling-yun, AD 385-433)"
• "The Death of Ronald Ryan (February 3, 1967)"
• "Within the Traveller's Eye"
• "The Pine"
• "Boarding House Poems : 1"
• "Boarding House Poems : 2"
• "Boarding House Poems : 3"
• "Boarding House Poems : 4"
• "Boarding House Poems : 5"
• "Boarding House Poems : 6"
• "Boarding House Poems : 7"
• "Boarding House Poems : 8"
• "The Single Principle of Forms"
• "A Labourer"
• "Church Grounds"
• "[21 Poems] ([Short Poems])"
• "Credo"
• "The Meat Works"
• "Landscape"
• "The Cats"
• "To the Master Dogen Zenji (1200-1253 AD)"
• "Bright Day"
• "Evening"
• "[24 Poems]"
• "The Sawmill Shacks"
• "North Coast Town"
• "The Great Buddha, Kamakura"
• "Late Ferry"
• "The Name"
• "Old House"
• "Poem to Kristina"
• "In the Bus"
• "The Chair"
• "Greyhounds"
• "The Old Wooden Venetian Blinds..."
• "Poem to My Father"
• "Pumpkins"
• "Looking After a Friend's House"
• "Smoke of Logs ..."
• "Afterwards"
• "Tropical Morning"
• "The Visit"
• "Flames and Dangling Wire"
• "Old Man"
• "The Calm"
• "The Swallows"
• "[14 Poems]"
• "Dharma Vehicle"
• "Telling the Beads"
• "Brushtail Possum"
• "Bellingen"
• "Going Back, On a Hot Night"
• "[20 Poems] ([Short Poems])"
• "Reflection"
• "An Afternoon"
• "Scotland, Visitation"
• "The Dusk"
• "The Estates"
• "Dark Glasses"
• "In the Early Hours ..."
• "The Motel Room"
• "On Contradictions"
• "Walking in an American Wood"
• "Travels en Famille"
• "The Garden"
• "Smoke"
• "Daybreak"
• "The Canoe"
• "A Storm"
• "The Sea-Shell"
• "The Best Place..."
• "On Politics"
• "Bondi"
• "The Poem"
• "A Country Town"
• "Sketch of the Harbour"
• "Emptying the Desk"
• "[16 Poems] ([Short Poems])"
• "A Day at Bellingen"
• "Landscape"
• "Bringing the Cattle"
• "Karl Marx"
• "Watching By the Harbour"
• "Diptych"
• "Aubade"
• "Memories of the Coast"
• "For Harriet"
• "At the Inlet"
• "Mr Nelson"
• "Following the Wheel Tracks..."
• "Curriculum Vitae"

Critical reception

Judith Rodruguez, in The Sydney Morning Herald , complimented the collection, calling it "the most refreshing selected for several years." She went on to note "Gray's reliance on the observed nature of things surely appeals to an Australian public. The prickliness of his concentration, his sensual revulsion from the gross insignia of poverty and snobbery and the processes of an abbatoir, all have us with him." ^[4]

Awards

• 1985 The Age Book of the Year Awards – Imaginative Writing, shortlisted ^[5]
• 1985 Grace Leven Prize for Poetry, winner ^[6]
• 1986 NSW Premier's Literary Award – Kenneth Slessor Prize for Poetry, winner ^[3]

See also

• 1985 in Australian literature

References

1. "Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert Gray". National Library of Australia. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
2. "Austlit — Selected Poems 1963-1983 by Robert Gray". Austlit. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
3. "Premier's prize giving a sober literary affair". Sydney Morning Herald, 17 September 1986, p5. ProQuest   2526321643 . Retrieved 23 November 2025.
4. ""Plain fare from an elegant hand"". The Sydney Morning Herald, 22 March 1986, p47. ProQuest   2526434409 . Retrieved 23 November 2025.
5. ""The Age Book of the Year Finalists"". The Age, 16 November 1985, p12 (Saturday Extra). ProQuest   2521108264 . Retrieved 23 November 2025.
6. "Austlit — Grace Leven Prize 1985". Austlit. Retrieved 23 November 2025.