The Elsewhere Variations" is a series of poems by Peter Bakowski and Ken Bolton in which themes develop, are abandoned, resurface, where poems answer, continue or oppose each other. The usual thrills of collaborative projects. But these are unusual and will get attention just on that basis - and they are variously funny, mysterious, and occasionally moving. There are eight sets of six: forty-eight poems. They begin with a lightly fictionalised account of the poetry wars of inner Melbourne - but from there they undertake a survey of human happiness, ambition and acceptance. Australian