The Right Words at the Write Time

by Christa Allan

I'm not sure when or how I discovered Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. I'm just grateful that I did. His words leave me breathless. Really. I don't know how much of what I read in English has been lost in translation from his having written in Spanish, but perhaps that's for the best. I might not be able to stand after reading his original work.

Some of his poems are politically charged, but those that aren't are infused with sensual imagery and raw vulnerability, all simply and profoundly composed.

So, when I read that the theme is "the right words at the right time" and what those words mean to me as an author, I remembered having copied this snippet below to share with my students. I wanted to share it today because it reminds me, in my writer life, to not walk away hungry when invited to the banquet of words.

The second link is to a brief video, one I also shared in class, about the power of words.

Enjoy the feast.

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from "Everything Exists in the Word" by Pablo Neruda (Memoirs)

“You can say anything you want, yes sir, but it’s the words that sing, they soar and they descend ….. I bow to them . . . I cling to them, I run them down, I bite into them . . I love words so much … The ones I wait for greedily … they glitter like colored stones, they leap like silver fish… They are foam, thread, metal, dew … I stalk certain words… They are so beautiful that I want to fit them all into my poem… I catch them in mid-flight, as they buzz past, I trap them, clean them, peel them, I set myself in front of the dish, they have a crystalline texture to me, vibrant, ivory, vegetable, oily, like fruit, like algae, like agates, like olives… And I stir them, I shake them, I drink them, I gulp them down, I mash them, I garnish them …. I leave them in my poem like stalactites, like slivers of polished wood, like coals, like pickings from a shipwreck, gifts from the waves … 

ChangeYour Words, Change Your World

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Christa Allan is the author of  Threads of Hope, Walking on Broken Glass, The Edge of Grace, and Love Finds You in New Orleans. You can find her at www.christaallan.com, Facebook, and Twitter. When she's not obsessing over words, she's weeding her garden in hopes of generating ideas. Christa, a recently retired teacher, and her husband live in New Orleans with their three neurotic cats.