This anthology contains an astonishing variety of approaches to the idea
of partnership. Connections made varied from the intense to the
stuttering, as time-zones, work-life balance and the long tale of the
pandemic impacted the project, and as our poets grappled with the
enormity of the subject matter and the breadth of its possibilities.
Poets connected via zoom, email, audio message, text and more - they
shared detailed accounts and five word prompts, noise and silence. But
together and apart (as poets so often ulimately are) incredible work has
been produced.
The work is as varied as the approaches to the project. Sometimes
minimal, at other times a gushing tidal wave, loosely formed or tight
and taut poetry objects. But, and we don't use this work lightly, it is
without exception brilliant! It is thought provoking, educative,
surprising and most of all communicative. It is telling us and teaching
us something. It is a window into the soul of individulals scattered
throughout the world and connected by a construct (the commonwealth) as
tenuous and imposed as the idea of a country, or a border, or time
itself. And ultimately by the act of creating poetry.
