AustLit

 For this collaboration, each poet initially sent three poems to the other, after which they wrote new poems responding to those received. This article presents the initial poems, followed by the responses, followed by reflective commentaries in which each poet discusses their experiences of and learning through this creative and dialogic process.

The work presented here redevelops materials previously published in TEXT: Journal of Writing and Writing Courses special issue number 60 (https://textjournal.scholasticahq.com/article/23520-sites-and-citations). The previously-published work has been reconsidered and reframed in the light of more recent social, political, and historical developments, particularly those related to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and the global climate crisis.

(Publication abstract)

'Perhaps I’ve spent too long in the self-help sections of bookshops, expecting to find the secret to long life and enduring happiness written down somewhere. As a poet, I am preternaturally worried about poetry running out on me: the inspiration drying up, the fun of it going out for a pack of cigarettes one day and never coming back, leaving me with nothing but a sink full of dishes and a manuscript full of melancholy poems about birds.' (Introduction)

'Like much else that finds its way onto the internet, the poetry in ‘I saw the best memes of my generation’ is fleeting, reactionary and selective with its facts—only ever tangentially concerned with the ‘real’ world. Somehow this book skewers SS utes, flower arrangement, the antiquated forms of Italian Opera, the emerging politics of the climate crisis and the misogynist underbelly of rock and roll with one flukey shot of an arrow. This much anticipated debut collection pins Symes’ viral poems down like delicate butterflies for the pleasure of your eighteenth century drawing room.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.