Looking for a little something to get you over the hump of the week? Well, we have some great news for you. It’s July 16, and that means it’s Take Your Poet to Work Day! It’s the day that you can color and cut out one of your favorite poets, thanks to Tweet Speak Poetry, and bring him or her to work with you. It can make for some great adventures. Introduce your boss to both the visage and inspiring works of Langston Hughes, or romance that special someone with one of Neruda’s famous odes. (And while we can’t grant you permission to bring a real-life poet friend to work, that’s something worth considering on its own.) Today, our editors will be bringing some poets to their jobs. Keep an eye on our Twitter to see how things go!
For now, please enjoy this moment of poem, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market
By Pablo Neruda
Here,
among the market vegetables,
this torpedo
from the ocean
depths,
a missile
that swam,
now
lying in front of me
dead.
Surrounded
by the earth’s green froth
—these lettuces,
bunches of carrots—
only you
lived through
the sea’s truth, survived
the unknown, the
unfathomable
darkness, the depths
of the sea,
the great
abyss,
le grand abîme,
only you:
varnished
black-pitched
witness
to that deepest night.
Only you:
dark bullet
barreled
from the depths,
carrying
only
your
one wound,
but resurgent,
always renewed,
locked into the current,
fins fletched
like wings
in the torrent,
in the coursing
of
the
underwater
dark,
like a grieving arrow,
sea-javelin, a nerveless
oiled harpoon.
Dead
in front of me,
catafalqued king
of my own ocean;
once
sappy as a sprung fir
in the green turmoil,
once seed
to sea-quake,
tidal wave, now
simply
dead remains;
in the whole market
yours
was the only shape left
with purpose or direction
in this
jumbled ruin
of nature;
you are
a solitary man of war
among these frail vegetables,
your flanks and prow
black
and slippery
as if you were still
a well-oiled ship of the wind,
the only
true
machine
of the sea: unflawed,
undefiled,
navigating now
the waters of death.
Hey, thanks for the shout-out for Take Your Poet to Work Day. 🙂 We’re really excited about all the poets we’re seeing at work (and goofing off) all around the world. We’ll be sure to check your Twitter feed for the fun.