Volume 1 of Robbie Moffat's Poetic Works starts with him hitch-hiking at the age of twenty as he sets out to go to India. It is a young, unpretentious and naïve beginning for a poet who goes on to compose poetry for the next fifty years. The technique improves, the subject matter becomes more interesting, the travels ever more extensive, his observations deeper, and his love life more exotic.
Covering the years 1974 to 1986, the poetry reveals a young man trying to make his way in life working as a bus conductor, oil rig roustabout, fish factory skinner, cotton picker, house builder, taxi driver - anything and everything to make a living while struggling as a novelist who is trying to get published. The Far East, Africa, South America, USA and eventually to England to go to university to learn how to learn to write, all of this is documented in the poetry in this Volume. The results of his worldly education and the one he received at university can be plainly seen on the later pages of this book as Robbie Moffat learned new ways to talk to himself, and new ways to put down in his poetry for others to read many of the shortcomings he observed. It is a fascinating insight into the 70's and 80's generation.