"The poems help us to recall our own experiences, to ponder how technology changes conventional notions of separation and togetherness and how technology has enabled in this strange time, new ways of being united... Technology-mediation is but one sub-theme amid many other forms of tension spanning this substantial body of work. " Professor Johannes Cronjé, D Litt

Net was launched at the 8th International Symposium of Poetic Inquiry (ISPI), hosted in Cape Town from 24-27 May 2022.  

Read ISPI anchor Malika Ndlovu's response to the launch of Net

"The experience of Marí Peté’s multi-media, multi-modal collection  Net, Covid Verse at the momentous 8th International Symposium on Poetic Inquiry in Cape Town recently, was nothing short of transcendent. Given the intensity of presentations offered in parallel sessions at this stimulating hybrid event, hearing and seeing her offering was like sinking into a pool of tranquil waters. Even though this ground-breaking work navigates the gravity of pandemic times, historically and in the present, death, grief and complex webs of trauma humanity continues to experience, this bi-lingual poet has the ability to harness the grace of poetic essence and silences that allow the listener to breathe. Reading or listening to this work, we are  soothed and gently guided towards deep insights by her reflective tone, acute grasp of lyricism of language, the sparkling lines that play on ambiguity or mirroring between English and Afrikaans. To add to this richness are the fragile yet luminous and connective threads of the visual throughout the collection. This is a kind of poetry too, beyond word or sound, inviting in some places the spirit of play, of rumination and an intimacy that somehow affirms our common humanity...stitches and joins dots, reveals unseen possibilities across shattered or disparate realities. While the footnotes and bibliography of this manuscript could easily send you off on a spontaneous research trajectory, Net, Covid Verse is an enticingly layered tapestry of creative work that cannot be confined to a literary text or a single page and frame."

Recordings of selected poems

Net. Covid Verse by Marí Peté (e-copy)