The articles in this special issue do not involve translation in the conventional sense of re-creating a text from one language for readers who come to it via another. All of them, however, involve acts of collaborative poetic inquiry across literal and metaphoric distances of culture, location, language, lived experience, and more. Poetic inquiry describes the multiple and diverse range of research methodologies that in some way engage ‘the power of poetry to invite us as writers and readers into a very different, direct, and distinct way of being in and understanding the world and ourselves within it’ (Prendergast 2015: 683). In line with broader arguments such as that of Jen Webb for words as ‘good for thinking’ – or in other words generating knowledges, including but exceeding research knowledges (2010) – poetic inquiry valuably enables modes of thought and ways of knowing that differ from and complement those typically accessible through prose and other more commonly-practised modes of research writing. By Monica Prendergast’s account, this is particularly pertinent for research projects focused on ‘equity, human rights, and justice worldwide’, for ‘poetic inquiry invites us to engage as active witnesses within our research sites, as witnesses standing beside participants in their search for justice, recognition, healing, a better life’ (2015: 683).
- Special Issues: scholarly articlePoet Paul Celan speaks of a poem as ‘a message in a bottle’ washing up on ‘heartland’ (2001: 396). How might this idea shape poetic exchange between India and Australia?
- Special issues: creative worksThe title refers to the quadruple sequences of poems, linking the importance of cuisine and childhood memories to our shared ideas of home and cultural identity.
- Special Issues: scholarly articleThis article sees paired Australian and Indian poets, Adelle Sefton-Rowston and Sunil Sharma, come together to compare their home cities from different locations and sensibilities.
- Special issues: creative worksThis collection of poems is a gesture of cross-cultural response that seeks to explore the relationship between place and displacement in the work of two poets.
- Special Issues: scholarly articleExchanges between the two authors-poets suggest that the shared experience of wrestling with image, concept, and language provides a fulcrum for poets: a possibly contingent and consistently productive common ground.
- Special Issues: scholarly articleIn times of crisis, poetry becomes an ally and a possible confidante.
- Special Issues: scholarly articleThis paper presents a poetic ‘call and response’ exchange between two poets, sharing the contemplative witnessing and ‘responding’ of an Australian poet to the poetic ‘calls’ of an Indian poet.
- Special issues: creative worksThis collaborative engagement is corresponding poems between a Canberra-based poet, Shane Strange, and a Kolkata-based poet, Jaydeep Sarangi.
- Special issues: interviewsIn this non-peer-reviewed dialogue, Mohini R Gurav interviews Robert Maddox-Harle about his longstanding engagement with Indian poets and poetry.