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.