Introduction
by Panda Wong
I’m so tired. Everyone I’ve spoken to is so tired. It feels like exchanging expressions of exhaustion has become a new greeting. Emails and work and the activity of living all seem to blur into each other. I don’t need to articulate why we are so tired. Life feels combustible, teetering on the edge, stretched out to breaking point, ready to pop like a viral whitehead.
In the middle of all this mass exhaustion, there have been many small moments of sanctuary (a feeling that might be something like this frog using a leaf as an umbrella). Our commissioned artists show us what these moments can look like: an online word game, the specific pink of a sunset, a recurring dream, a loading screen, a shared listening experience, a temple from the past or a poem passed down through generations.
The work in this series reminds me that sanctuary is often not found, it’s made—in between life’s seams, the dimming light of dusk, the spaces we make with each other.
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Panda Wong is a Malaysian-Chinese poet who lives on unceded Wurundjeri land. She is an Associate Editor at The Suburban Review, a Performance Review board member and a 2020 Wheeler Centre Hot Desk fellow.
The first poem she ever wrote was a eulogy. Her first chapbook angel wings dumpster fire was published by Puncher & Wattmann in 2022. Her first EP, salmon cannon me into the abyss, a collaboration with multiple friends was released in July 2022.
