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).