Sing me a Song of a Lad that is Gone
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Sing me a song of a lad that is gone, Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.
Tag: Chile
Poetry at the Post: Blue and Yellow Swirls in Santiago
BY KIM ADDONIZIO
I like to touch your tattoos in completedarkness, when I can’t see them….
Poetry at the Post: Bicycling in Santiago
BY MICHAEL DONAGHY
Dearest, note how these two are alike:
This harpsicord pavane by Purcell
And the racer’s twelve-speed bike.
Poetry at the Post: Bracelets, Bangles & Thomas Hardy in Santiago
The Ruined MaidBY THOMAS HARDY
…
And now you’ve gay bracelets and bright feathers three!” —
“Yes: that’s how we dress when we’re ruined,” said she.
Poetry at the Post: Feeling Yellow and Pink in Santiago, Chile!
The Yellow VioletBY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT
When beechen buds begin to swell,
And woods the blue-bird’s warble know,
The yellow violet’s modest bell
Peeps from the last year’s leaves below.
Poetry at the Post, Day 7: Here’s to the Tomato!
“Ode to Tomatoes” by Pablo Neruda, as translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer…
“It’s time” or soon it will be time for tomato season in Texas. Neruda’s poem “Ode to Tomatoes” reminds me of how much I enjoy garden grown tomatoes. There is just no substitute. Greenhouse tomatoes fill the gap in a pinch but they are just not the same. In Chile, the season is December and the tomato “unabated/invades the kitchen.”
You can read the full poem here in both Spanish and English: http://www.soupsong.com/ftomato2.html
I first read this poem several years ago. What I learned about craft from this poem and the others in the collection Odas Elementales , or Odes to Common Things is that you can write a poem about anything: a tomato, an onion, a lemon, even a pair of socks. I wrote an “Ode to High Heels”, modeled on Neruda’s “Ode to Tomatoes,” because I have a fondness for heels. They make me feel majestic. The perfect heel, for me, is 2 3/4″—not always so easy to find.
So much has been written about Neruda that I have nothing new to add, except that I read today that Neruda chose his pen name after the Czech poet, Jan Neruda.
Photo courtesy of Miaow Miaow , October 2005
Since no one has been joining me at the post each morning, I decided to read to a couple of my neighbors. They really liked this poem.
If you happen to be in the Austin, TX area and are looking for a full time seasonal job, Johnson’s Backyard Garden is hiring Tomato Packing Crew Members now.
https://www.jbgorganic.com/blog/2013/05/jbg-is-hiring-for-summer/
Thanks to Julie Haines for her request for Neruda. It was so much fun to reread this poem.
Alice-Catherine 