Last Year #5: In praise of the surface

After a few thousand years of teaching interpersonal communication I finally learned that "depth" is no more important than "breadth" and "likability."  I have been part of a "crew" that I consider my "peeps."  I don't know their deepest, darkest moments nor do they know mine but there is a way in which that's not important.  Here is a poem I wrote (part of the collection Sentenced to Venice) in praise of the beauty and viability of superficial, "collegial" relationships.

IN PRAISE OF THE SURFACE

for the Winestyles group

Those who know me only here

like this, wine glass or whiskey in

one hand, cicchetti in the other,

may think another self somewhere

abides, heavy hulled and riding deep

in ancient waters, soul of a poet or

philosopher, but I know better that

such depth can run aground, get

stuck, get cracked beyond repair

among these islands, these lives

thrown down together not by

design but fortune, while

craft that glide across experience --

flat bottomed gondolas, curved prow,

enamel shiny, a single oar both power

and direction -- can skim and turn

and slide above life’s muck unhampered

by uncertain measure of the water

waiting black beneath our feet.