The Poetry of Rodney Relax
Where there’s poetry, anarchy and energy, Rodney Relax is to be found. He was one of the group of writers who were the dynamo for Rebel Inc in its early days. Then with Sandie Craigie and some others he generated a sporadic literary efflorescence, the Yellow Café, which always guarantees a night that will etch its way into your memory.
Rodney, who has been called Edinburgh’s punk poet legend, is not an easy man to box. He has played diverse gigs from the Bongo to Leith Dockers Club and they’re always innovative, often with video and music as well as words. Jem Rolls of Big Word says his ‘darkly comic 
and unvarnished’ work ‘punches through the page’. A lot of other people agree. At a time when many people bemoan the difficulties of getting poetry into the book chains, Rodney’s latest venture into print, Dark Afore Nine, a joint publication with Graham Brodie, Jim Ferguson and John McGarrigle, has sold out its print run of 300 and he has had to retrieve the few remaining copies to supply the copyright libraries. Nae wurri.
© Jennie Renton 2006; poems
© Rodney Relax 2005
Gordon Peters on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 1:59 pm
ah jest heard tell o yer poetry an think its kinna barry.
keep it comin, Rodney
Gordon Peters on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 2:02 pm
we have a wee group will meet again from late august on in the Strathmore on Wednesdays; maybe you could give us a reading some time
Fay Young » Here and (not) there on Sat, 27th Jun 2009 5:03 pm
[...] Never mind. We had real, live poetry while shoppers passed by. Iyad, who now lives in Glasgow, read two of his own poems and one by Mahmoud Darwish in both Arabic and English. Ryan, who said he refused to be insulted by the disappearing poems (”Let’s hope they are decorating someone’s fridge somewhere”), read one about his family home in the US. And Gordon Munro (a Leith councillor with a not so private passion for poetry) read a poem in Scots dialect about Leith’s internationalism by the Leith poet Rodney Relax. [...]
Leith Open Space » A passion for poetry on Mon, 20th Jul 2009 3:12 pm
[...] read a poem in Scots dialect about Leith’s welcoming internationalism by the Leith poet Rodney Relax. While Jason Bergen of Oxfam reminded us that Scotland is not always a welcoming place for [...]
mushroom eddy on Tue, 19th Apr 2011 11:24 pm
bliddy hell, so the aul’ chancers still spouting!!!
great to see him keeping busy. mind you at his age he’ll have to or he’ll go stiff!
looking forward to bemping into him again, and soon i hope. (is he still kicking about with he’s aul cohort murphy (the joker)?
wen they stayed at the nick, colin doe did the hoos book keeping, so he wiz the fiddler
murphy kept telling tales
so he wiz the the joker.
and rodney with his poems was the riddler.
the riddler the fiddler and the joker… good days…
riddle-me-ree
if anyone sees him about, tell him mushroom edd saiz hiya
Arfur Fuxsake on Sun, 31st Jul 2011 7:50 am
Relapse its only paranoia
Lynn Mitchell on Mon, 3rd Jun 2013 10:16 pm
Rodney Relax is a truly brilliant poet.
colin fox on Tue, 12th Jan 2016 11:30 am
I am trying to get in touch with Rodney relax at Second Space Poetry. Left a message for him at Main Point books. Could you email me a number or email contact for him. I want to invite him along to the Edinburgh Peoples Festival Burns night on Sunday 24th January 2016 in Portobello. Thanks, Colin Fox Tel 07790 581883