Leaning Into The Afternoons

What inspires me today...
POETRY!
Right?

Neruda makes me miss the sea.

Leaning into the afternoons I cast my sad nets
towards your oceanic eyes.
There in the highest blaze my solitude lengthens and flames,
its arms turning like a drowning man's.
I send out red signals across your absent eyes
that smell like the sea or the beach by a lighthouse.
You keep only darkness, my distant female,
from your regard sometimes the coast of dread emerges.
Leaning into the afternoons I fling my sad nets
to that sea that is thrashed by your oceanic eyes.
The birds of night peck at the first stars
that flash like my soul when I love you.
The night gallops on its shadowy mare
shedding blue tassels over the land.
-Pablo Neruda



A poem for Neruda:
She sent him a line from a poem
Obscure as any; could have been pulled from any world,
But he immediately recognized its fragile words
As he let them pour out of his mouth.
Her feet in your lap, a book gently opened over them
Spine to toes.
She had never heard of Neruda.
She said she couldn't understand
Hers were tangled amidst the floorboards
Tied around my waist.
Hushed tones and days ending too frequently,
Finally they couldn't end enough.
A letter from far away, now full in his hands,
One line of the sea.
-Katie