Robert Sund (1929-2001) grew up on a small farm in Washington's
Chehalis Valley and studied with poet Theodore Roethke at the University of
Washington. His early experiences of farm life, logging camps, fishing in
Southeast Alaska, and working the wheat harvest in eastern Washington, together
with his love of colloquial language, served to ground his language deeply in
place and community. He spent his life living in and writing about the Pacific
Northwest. Over decades, he became a much-loved figure in the arts community of
the Northwest, locally renowned as a poet, painter, calligrapher, translator,
teacher, musician, and inspired reader of his poetry. He is the author of
Poems from Ish River Country: Collected Poems and Translations, Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004; Taos Mountain, Poet's House
Press, 2007; and
Notes from Disappearing Lake: The River journals of Robert Sund, Pleasure Boat Studio, 2012. A documentary,
In the Hall of Light: The Work and Life of Robert Sund, was released by the Robert Sund Poet's House Trust in 2010. For
additional information, go to <
www.robertsundpoetshouse.org >Poetry Collections:
- Bunch Grass, University of
Washington Press, Seattle & London, 1969. 2nd edition, 1973
- Ish River, North Point Press, San
Francisco, 1983 (received the Washington Governor's Writers Award)
- Poems from Ish River Country: Collected Poems & Translations, Shoemaker & Hoard, Washington, D.C., 2004
- Taos Mountain, Poet's House Press,
Anacortes, WA, 2007
- Notes from Disappearing Lake: The River Journals of Robert Sund, Pleasure Boat Studio, New York, 2012
Poetry Chapbooks:
- Ish River Poets in Folio, (self
published) 1965
- In Praise of my Ink Bottle,
(pamphlet) Double-Elephant Press, Seattle, 1971
- Why I am Singing for the Dancer,
Poets Press, Olympia, Washington, 1978
- The Hides of White Horses Shedding Rain, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, Washington, 1981
- How the Dancer is Carried into the Hall of Light, Sagittarius Press, Port Townsend, Washington, 1982
- This Flower, The Great Blue Heron
Society, La Conner, Washington, 1982
- As Though the Word Blue had been Dropped into the Water, Sagittarius Press, Port Townsend, Washington, 1986, 2nd
edition 1989, 3rd edition 1996
- Shack Medicine, Poems from Disappearing Lake, Tangram Press, Berkeley, 1990 (reissued by The Robert Sund Poet's
House Press, La Conner, (1992)
- Home: A Prayer for the World Where You Found It, (pamphlet) Tangram Press, Berkeley, 1991
- Bringing Friends Over, Haiku by Issa, Buson, Basho and Friends, Tangram Press, Berkeley, 2002
Editor:
- The Sullivan Slough Review, Number
1, Spring, 1969