Day 17-ish: Boating in the Deep

Poem:

Boating in the Deep

We push off and start to row;

hard, steady strokes

ripple gently the quiet lake.

A bit of water pools,

tickles sandaled toes

and we laugh and flex,

proclaim our powerful rowing

will splash a whole lake

into our boat.

Farther and deeper

our strokes slow;

the laughter falters

while the pool rises.

We reach down,

find and cover the leak—

but another appears,

water bubbles in,

and we scramble.

Knees press wet metal;

fingers fumble over

patches and plugs and buckets.

We bail frantically the rocking hull,

shout competing instructions

while one oar floats

toward purple and red-streaked horizon

and the fading shore.

 

Commentary:

 

This poem reflects something most people have experienced at one point or another: the building up of concerns from something we can laugh off to a compilation that becomes overwhelming.  I worked to create a contrast between the idyllic scene and the human emotion within it, a reflection of an outside world moving quietly, steadily forward despite the human turmoil occurring within it.

 

In writing poetry, both this poem and more generally, I worked to avoid editorializing, letting emotional impact and any ideas emerge from the visual and auditory cues.  Hopefully this allows the poem to resonate very differently for different readers.