As we enter the funnel of the holidays, please to enjoy the poem below by John Ash from the Atlanta Review Spring/Summer 2006 (12:2):

DRINKING

A great Turkish poet,
or at least a great poet who lived
in Turkey (for he wrote in Persian)

once said: "Being sober is not living."
This has occasioned much commentary,
but it is my belief that he drank copiously,

albeit in a disciplined fashion,
and the wine he speaks of should not be
interpreted metaphorically,

though he may have felt that through it
he approached God. He was, after all,
a charming and honest person who wrote

affectionate letters to his daughter-in-law.
As to the distinctions Jew, Muslim,
Christian, they meant nothing to him.

In this book let him be praised.

--John Ash