Abbey Forrest @abbeyforrestpoems (now @dmaryaauthor) invented the Blind Group Collaboration by giving us the first few written lines or by the poet who would be leading the collaboration, while the rest of us would then begin writing our pieces based solely on that, even though we knew that there were others writing before and after us. It gave us so much freedom to explore ideas, topics and themes. Not only that, it was wonderful to witness—in the words of Abbey Forrest—how “each writer brings something unique to the table and its lovely to see how a story is weaved together without even knowing what the others are writing about.” 

 

The group was a hand selected team of diverse poets who loved writing together and who executed a number of Blind Collaborations under Abbey Forrest’s fearless leadership as host, captain and organizer. It was she who very kindly kept us active together on Instagram. We soon became known as the Taco Crew (we still do not know who came up with this nickname but it stuck) and we set off on wonderful, amazing journeys that brought out some of our best work into the shocking, twisted and fantabulous mind-melds. During the year that I wrote with the group, I made many connections with brilliant creatives from around the world and it was amazing to realize how small the world really is or rather how similar we are when we find reasons to journey into another’s universe. I am so grateful to her for inviting, connecting and helping me make my own way into the world of talented poets, writers, spoken word performers, photographers, creatives, artists and lyricists on her social media platform.

 

Here are the 23 blind collaborations that I was part of and which can be found in the photo albums on my Facebook social media profile:

1. Behind The Door 

2. The Explorer’s Courtyard 

3. Mind Monsters of Time

4. Invasion Invasion

5. Broken Soul Tendrils

6. The Heists of Taco Tuesday

7. These Haunted Aspirations

8. Pieces to this Puzzle 

9. Insomnia 

10. Flickered Visions

11. The Coming Hour

12. The Beginning

13. Hopeless Hope

14. Final Frontier

15. Hand in Hand

16. Second Birth

17. For Love, we all Fight

18. The Possibilities

19. Somedays

20. A Parrot's Tale

21. A Night of Decadence

22. Finding Gratitude

23. Envy and Lovers