How many poets
published in our time
or like myself unpublished
have taken to heart
Neruda's recipe
poems like fresh baked bread
everyday fare
to nourish hungry minds
and souls with words
that need no higher education
or complexity of thought
yet fill the belly and
delight the tongue
Elemental Odes - a celebration
of the ordinary
things as universal as a pair of socks
an orange
a ripe avocado
or as common
as sadness or the sea
even working in a language sonorous
as Spanish
to have succeeded as he did
was no small feat
and for it he was honored
but for us who follow after
it's a challenge
only a few will meet