Ed Roberts (poet)
Ed Roberts (born June 27, 1958 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) is an American poet, writer and publisher.
Biography
After a life-threatening illness in the year 2000 Roberts decided to publicly share his work. His debut A Poet's Last Stand from 2002 is a collection of poems and song lyrics written over a 25 year period. His writing is influenced both by his long Oklahoman and Native American heritage as well as by national and international topics including cultural, political and social issues.
Several poems and articles were published by The Poetic Voices Magazine, The Poetry Sharings Journal and on the internet. In answer to it Roberts was asked to read his poems and talk about poetry in schools, universities and at poetry festivals. In 2005 Roberts was awarded to represent the United States with 15 other writers at the Odyssey International Festival in Amman, Jordan.
His latest work The Poetry For Life Project consists of three books. The first book Poetry For Life contains poems dealing mainly with drug and alcohol abuse. The second book Save Our Selves deals with abuse in family, suicide and the loss of loved ones. The third book A Walk Through Time is a collection of historical and political poems.
Style and content
His poems are mainly written in free verse ignoring traditional regular meter, rhyme and alliteration. According to Roberts these characteristics of poetry "would not translate the same in other languages." (The Oklahoman, August 21 2005) The focus of his work is rather its critical content. Therefore, social topics such as drinking and driving, rape, political and historic issues such as the Oklahoma City Bombing, Iraque, hunger and poverty and cultural discussions about poetry, art and science build the content of this modernist poetry.
References
Roberts, Ed. A Poet's Last Stand. A Collection of Poems & Song Lyrics.(Virtualbookworm.com Publishing, 2002) ISBN 1-58939-257-4
Roberts, Ed. Poetry For Life (The Poetry For Life Project,2006) ISBN 978-1-4243-2597-9
The Oklahoman. City poet to attend Jordan festival. Issue from August 21, 2005. Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
External Links
Putnam City Highschool Captured June 15, 2007.