It lies in the love of wood and grain
Blog post
On reading “Wooden Boats,” by Judy Sorum Brown
Judy Sorum Brown’s poem, “Wooden Boats,” which on the surface is about the craft of boat making, turns beautifully in the third stanza to ask, “Is there within us each …?” By the final lines, it has us wondering if it might even be possible to transform the world.
As with building wooden boats, building bridges between people is a high-touch craft. We can’t build bridges if we highlight our differences at the outset. That would, you might say, “go against the grain.” Imagine starting to cross a bridge, putting your hand on the rail, and immediately getting a splinter!
Our attention needs to be on how the pieces can fit together – on how to let “the grain of wood” run true. The craft comes in smoothing the way.
And while the craft of building wooden boats lies in the love of wood and grain, the craft of building relational bridges lies in, well, love – love of the things that bring us together. Love of the idea of being together. If the focus at the outset is on differences, we may never learn where that bridge could have taken us.
– Dennis Huffman, Advisor, Building Bridges Word by Word
Judy Sorum Brown was born in northwest Michigan and received her doctorate in comparative literature from Michigan State. A former White House Fellow, she has taught at the University of Maryland and worked with the Aspen Institute. “Wooden Boats” is from The Sea Accepts All Rivers & Other Poems (2016).
What’s Your Story?
In Judy Sorum Brown's poem, "Wooden Boats," we can feel the wood beneath her brother's hand, can feel his "love of the wood and grain." We are caught up in her description of the transformative powers of that skill, that love. In his reflection on her poem, Dennis Huffman takes it another step, imaging how that same careful love and attention is needed in building bridges.
I used to think that poems had just one meaning and that it was our job to figure out precisely what the poet was trying to say. Carefully analyzing each line, each word, wringing the meaning out of them, much as Billy Collin’s playfully skewers in his “Introduction to Poetry.”
Fortunately, years ago, I learned from Parker J. Palmer how to pay attention to what the poem means to me - and that doing so was okay. Collins would agree. It changed my relationship to poetry from being an outsider looking in, to one who embraces poetry and relishes how poems can speak for me.
Many of us, probably without thinking about it, do this all the time. We share poems that move us with friends, family, and the world through emails, texts, and social media platforms - letting the text speak for us. In doing so, especially if we include a note about the poem, we reveal something about who we are and what we believe.
That’s why Building Bridges Word by Word invites you to share a short reflection on a saying, quote, song, or poem that is meaningful to you. Posting these reflections on our Substack and website, enables us to read each other’s stories, discover what connects us (such as a similar response to a poem or how it reflects a life experience we may have in common), and begin to build bridges across our divides.
How to get started? Click on the button below for story guidelines, prompts, and the steps for submitting your reflection. Questions? Email us at buildingbridgeswbw@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
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