Statement and Poem for Precipice
Statement for Precipice
This body of work represents a journey. An attempt to capture a period of my life that due to the financial collapse of 2008 brought my family to the edge of Vancouver’s urban growth boundary. The imagery and story is best explained in my poem “Precipice”. I would like to add that the journey, although filled with trials on many levels, was an overall positive experience. Our new neighborhood was the type of place where kids safely played into the night and ice cream trucks visited like clockwork in the long summer days. In retrospect it became a time for reflection on my family’s circumstances in a world ever changing by so many forces. Our home in the suburbs was like an outpost on the edge of the world. While many tumultuous world events have occurred all over our planet in the last 8 years, the riots and wars, floods and fires never came even close to our quiet outpost. But they did. The internet, radio, and T.V. brought all these things to the suburbs. While we all went about our life, it was hard to figure out what was real. The place we lived: where children played so carefree and coyotes sang into the early morning every spring seemed so at odds with the rest of the world.
I almost called this collection Riot in the Suburbs, but the work never became that political. Instead, it became personal and celebratory. Where the comforts of home were the lace on the table and the woods behind the subdivision. Picking blackberries in the neighboring undeveloped lot and the owls I would visit in the forest kept me centered. And besides, we could always turn off the riots so they never came to our suburbs. Certain anthems are playing behind all this work. Specifically, Arcade Fire’s album The Suburbs which sing: “I need the darkness so please cut the lights.” A plea for innocence, for dreaming. But what I realized from my time in the ‘burbs, is that our innocence is tainted by the age old quest for gold. And while there is plenty of sun for us all, our little planet will never be able to provide us with all the gold we need. But if we could find a way to turn the sunlight into gold perhaps we would not need to turn on each other so savagely. So, I conclude, Precipice is my personal journey as I spent time at a quiet outpost. The undertones of global narratives give me perspective, but more immediate are the simple things in life, like a butterfly, a shell, or the warmth of the sun.
Jason
Facebook@jasonwadephelpsart
A Poem for Precipice
I had fallen I feared
into a chasm
a tireless expanse
without reason
without gold
no cup to hold to the sky
for heaven to fill
But the wandering sun
was my alchemy
my faith to peer
into the night
Where I found
false fires blazed
illuminating every facade
I now called Home
How their light warded off
ancient fear
and anxiety we call
Forgetting
But remembering is why
like lace
like a butterfly
like a knife
so delicate
so intentional
I did not quit
I did not waver
to false idols
to voices with
no past
no instinct
no deliverance
Precipice.
There was comfort
in the warmth
the Jackal brought me
in the night
piercing drums with insanity
with instinct to deliver
a song
a hope
that tomorrow’s sun
could fill my cupped hands
with courage to
wander over the precipice
where towers held
many secrets only
told to spirits
of a feather
in the wind
to the earth
with a clue as they fell.
Softly
I collected those charms
I gathered many
in all their beautiful forms
in all their mystical algorithms
given to me from beyond the edge
so that I may summon
something real.
I would like to thank you
Bone, Feather, Shell, Soil
You gave me courage
to build my tower
to reach the orbit
of the light.
Golden