Barn Raising
A Poem about Marriage
for Zak and Colette

Paul Piatkowski
​
 
The warm weather nears,
and the wood settles,
expands and fills
the spaces that once
felt empty.
In building, it is the triangle
that is the strongest
geometric shape,
post meeting beam,
self-supporting, strong.
 
Joinery.
 
The art of joining timber,
beams and posts meeting
and finding ways
to settle against one another,
dependent on the wood,
because no nail
bears the weight as well--
for the tenon and post
bear the force, the gravity
equally. Two pieces of wood
worked together, nestled against
each other, dependent--the one
to the other.
 
In the tongue and fork
joint, one piece of timber
nestles into the other,
making a ridge pole
obsolete, the beams peaking
into a vertex, a point reaching
to the heavens, and grounded
into the floor. The structure sound;
the building strong.