Twice in one day, I encountered the idea of “progress over perfection” and “perfect is the enemy of done”, from comedienne/writer/actor/directors – first, transcribing an interview I’d done with the wonderful Katie Burrell about her upcoming feature film Weak Layers (check it out at the Whistler Film Festival next weekend!) and about her career trajectory so far, and a few hours later, in a targeted ad from Masterclass with Amy Poehler, Amy said the same thing.

Spooky coincidence? Cosmic message? Spying technology? Who can say. But the bottom line was, I was reminded to get out of my own way. To give myself permission to make work and share it, even if it feels scrappy, scruffy or too revealing.

When we are sharing something deeply meaningful and close to our secret hearts, we can always find reasons to retract, withdraw, pull it back, tuck it in, hide it away… which is in large part why I literally can feel my whole heart expanding, in a terrible, wonderful, terrifying way, through this Secret Poetry Appreciation experiment. Every offering is heartfelt and so deeply personal, we could all come up with reasons to not share, not press record, not hit send. I feel vulnerable because of it. I feel vulnerable in solidarity. I feel gratified, and vulnerable in that. I feel so heart-swollen when I see previous contributors making supportive and beautiful comments to subsequent contributors, stepping back from the spotlight and becoming part of the support crew. Sometimes, we have to record our poems a few times over, to get past the stumble. I initially mis-cast my poet as Palestinian instead of Pakistani, and so had to do a dodgy edit leaving a long moment of silence in the middle of mine. But I left it there anyway (even though most of my brain was like, wow, how ignorant and white are you, castigate, self-flagellate etc.)

Because the point is to put it out there. Because the point is not the polish, but the field we are creating, by essentially gathering in our minds in a great big circle around a wide open space, and taking turns throwing our voices across that vast space and into the listening ears of the others who are willing to be part of this “call and response”, as Pip called it.

So here is Andrea Abramson-Boys, a local yogi, mountain lover, mama, poet, adventurer, free spirit, noticer of beauty, joining the circle, sharing her poem, Divine Divinity.

divine divinity

divine divinity

honoured to be here

honoured to be

in your presence

awe and wonder

spirit and creator

grateful for the existent invisible binding

we are bound

bound together

woven with the multicoloured threads

unbreakable

love

in every form

in all our shapes and weaknesses

in all our strengths

we are strong

because of ourselves

and because of each other

we are bound

we are love

divine and divinity

love in all its forms

we are one.

by andrea abramson-boys