Split View Cabin 1, Avery Peters
I’ve had a long break from writing for my newsletter, but I have still been doing a lot of writing and discerning. I took a mini retreat to write in the summer. My kids were both at camp, so I stole away to a tiny off-grid cabin on the rocky cliffs of Scots Bay on the Bay of Fundy. I didn’t have to go too far — just 30 minutes from my house. I spent 2 days reading, writing, stretching, enjoying music, and walking along the beach and collecting rocks and driftwood when the tide was out.
In the fall, my son asked me to download an app on my phone so he could create stop motion videos. As I watched him create his first video, it got me thinking about my poems and how I can share them. The images from this past summer have been strong in my mind and it has been good to shape them into something tangible.
What is the work?
This poem is the work. It is a reminder. I do not write or create because I have figured things out, but because I am learning.
But who am I?
I have not created myself a platform and I do not intend to. Through the process of cutting of each letter, each shape, I am shaped and reminded. As I speak the words in my own voice, I am reminded again. Things move slowly. It is not my job to speed things up. I change and am shaped slowly. There is no shortcut to the work that is set before me. In our culture we like to find the shortest route to accomplish a task, or even get AI or a machine to do it for us, but there is so much richness in the process.
Fog Drifts, Avery Peters
The Work, Avery Peters
Cliff: A Stop Motion Video Poem by Avery Peters