AustLit

'While traversing the longtime friendship shared between the poets as well as the land they both inhabit, the experience I had while reading the coauthored book Renga: 100 Poems, by John Kinsella and Paul Kane is a truly unique one because of their willingness to try an innovative project with the traditional Japanese form of renga as the driving force. To continue a call-and-response between two people in the form of renga over the span of ten years is quite bold and also a challenge, considering that traditionally the poems are written in one sitting, usually during a gathering, by more than two people—essentially renga was a party game. Here, however, solitude seems to be at the center of most of these poems, in which the observation turns inward.' (Introduction)