He is a 2007 Jack Straw Writer with Jack Straw Productions in Seattle, Washington. Robertson read his poems at the 2007 Burning Word Festival. Robertson was the Poet-in-Residence at the Henry Art Gallery on the University of Washington campus in Seattle during April 2010. He gave a reading with other Native American authors at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon, during November, 2010. Eric Alan interviewed Robertson on NPR-Living Large on April 18, 2013. Robertson gave a reading as part of the Third Saturday Reading Series at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon, on April 20, 2013. He was interviewed about his novel, Peculiar Pioneer, on KLCC FM on December 4, 2013 and a recording of this interview is available on the KLCC website. Together with his wife Margaret Robertson, he gave a joint reading about sustainability at Tsunami Books in Eugene, Oregon, on April 5, 2014. Robertson read from Peculiar Pioneer at the inaugural reading of the Lane Writers Reading Series in Eugene, Oregon, on September 28, 2014. Robertson read his long, philosophical poem, "Quantum intimations at the grand Multnomah", at the River Road Annex in Eugene, Oregon, on January 25, 2015. Robertson read his long, philosophical poem, "Hope speaks of life on Earth", at the Lane Community College Downtown Campus in Eugene, Oregon, on December 1, 2016.
Works
Robertson defines poetry broadly as an inclusive genre, referring to the archaic meaning of "poem": a made thing, ποίημα. He consequently considers each of his poems to be an ode, a fiction, an essay, an abstract painting and a jazz improvisation. He describes his poetry as a mimesis of the streaming of Being through Nonbeing. He intends a continuous poetic flow that pauses but seldom stops, so that his line-breaks become purely visual and do not halt the progress of the poetic line when spoken. He means for his poetry to affirm with Aristotle that truth is most universally told through a blend of fictional and factual material. He conceives each poem as an essay of existential discovery, an enterprising foray into the discursive wilderness. He maintains that his poetry portrays visually the drift and swirl of the things themselves and the interconnected chiaroscuro of shadowy essence and shimmering everydayness. He bases his work on the belief that reality never fails and that the phenomenal revelatory streaming of its representation in his poetry is authentic. He credits Heidegger, Whitman, Pushkin, Bashō, Cervantes, Montaigne and Ovid as his major influences. His first book of poems was titled to the fierce guard in the Assyrian Saloon in 1987. His second book of poems was titled Ode to certain interstates and Other Poems. His third book of poems was titled The Bricolage of Kotegaeshi. His fourth book of poems, The Gaian Odes, won the Sinclair Poetry Prize. His fifth book of poems was Two Odes of Quiddity and Nil. His sixth book of poems was Odes to the Ki of the Universe. His seventh book of poems was The Green Force of Spring. His eighth book of poems was Ode to Certain Interstates. His ninth book of poems was Odes to the Ki of the Universe. His first novel was Peculiar Pioneer. He published a book of stories, Hyperzotica. His tenth book of poems was Hope Speaks. His second novel was Love in the Cretaceous.
Robertson's poetry won him the Tor HouseRobinson Jeffers Prize in 2003, the Elizabeth R. Curry Poetry Prize at Slippery Rock University in 2006, the Sinclair Poetry Prize from Evening Street Press in 2009, and the Atlanta Review's International Merit Award in 2014. He won the Bumbershoot Writers-in-Performance Award in 1993, the Pacifica Award in 1995 and the Literal Latte Award in 1997.
