iceberging

I'm just past 2/3 of the way through my writing residency at the University of Manitoba and throughout my time here, I've been working on a found poetry/lullaby/fragment project that imagines conversations my 2 year old great-grandfather and 25 year old great-great-grandmother might have had while journeying from India to Suriname in 1873/4. I'm using the ship's log and crew agreement for their journey as a lexicon for my work. 

The nature of this work means that I'm creating small fragments, and relatively spare pieces that don't have many words. And a few weeks ago, I was fussing about the fact that I only had about 700 words to 'show' for my then almost 2 months here. How could that be, when I'm working at this every day? 

It was only when I was writing one of my daily research/reflection blog posts that I realized that I need to remember that the fragments/poems/conversations/lullabies I'n writing are only the visible tip of the iceberg. 

All my daily thinking, reflecting, and researching - externalized into a daily stitchery and blogging practice - sustains and supports the now 1000 words on top. The base of my iceberg now includes 65 different small-scale stitch projects and about 28,000 words of writing. I still have another 30 days to go. By the time I'm finished my term, I may have 1500 words of fragments and poems and a really good start to this collection. But alongside that, I'll have 45-50K words and 95 stitch projects of thinking, dreaming, reflecting, and researching - and a written and visual record of this journey. 

I need to remember the iceberg.

The glorious cathedral berg above was at Cape Spear, Newfoundland and Labrador, about ten years ago. An enormous stunner of an iceberg that was grounded for over a week in that spot. And that grounding is, in itself, probably also a useful lesson.

(c) Sonja Boon, 2025.