Rowbotham, David

Australia, (1924-2010)

The Season

‘It’s the season of the overdose.’
    — A hospital Sister, Christmas-time

  1.  
  2. This is the season of the overdose
  3. and of the slaughtered pig
  4. with the apple in its mouth for the hearty house.
  5. To those who have lost heart but survive the self
  6. administered slaughterous bottle in the mouth,
  7. greetings, in the teeth of the pig
  8. with the bite of the pill that isn’t appled ham.
  9. The season’s a sow in the pen of Knum the ram,
  10. the animal god Egyptian to the tribes
  11. who worshipped orgies, on the way to a promised land
  12. ordained for birth and the carpentry of a cross
  13. that nailed a manger’s hand.
  14. For the meanwhile hearty house, promise prescribes
  15. the appetite given to those
  16. already in the reach of the greed of the overdose,
  17. and glad tidings of great joy as just a hymn
  18. of habit, like the bottled star of Bethlehem.

David Rowbotham. New and selected poems 1945-1993. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin (1994).

About the Poet:

David Harold Rowbotham, Australia, (1924-2010), was a poet, author, teacher, editor and journalist. He studied at the University of Queensland and the University of Sydney. Rowbotham served in the Second World War on the Pacific front as a Royal Australian Air Force wireless operator for a mobile fighter sector.

Rowbotham then worked as a freelance journalist in Sydney, and later London. Then back in Australia, he became a journalist for the Toowoomba Chronicle and Brisbane Courier-Mail (1955-64). He lectured in English at the University of Queensland (1965-1969), and became the literary critic of the Brisbane Courier-Mail (1969-1980), and its literary editor (1980-1987). While working as a full time journalist, Rowbotham also pursued a distinguished career as a poet, publishing more than fourteen collections in his lifetime..

Though lyrical in form, Rowbotham’s poems are often concerned with history. His contribution to Australian literature was recognized by a number of awards, including the Australia Council’s Writers’ Emeritus Award (1989), the Order of Australia (AM) in 1991, and the Patrick White Award in 2007. [DES-03/18]

Additional information: