Pablo Neruda

How to Practice Magic

There is a big message in this little film, way bigger than its title, Reframe the Familiar. The visuals seem somehow of another time and act, with the words and odd voice, like hunks of poetry.

Mister Rogers on The One of the Simplest Yet Rarest Gifts We Can Give

In this short video clip, the remarkable Fred Rogers describes one of the most powerful gifts he was given in his life, and got us wondering how we can give, and encourage it ourselves?

Ode to Age (Antidote to Agism) with 40 Portraits in 40 years

Everyone we know seems to be feeling old, time flying, obsolescence. Daily, we find ourselves doing things to antidote the agism in our head, about OURSELVES. We find this Ode to Age helps mightily.

Tables Tattood with Memories or Poems

An image spotted at the great Moon to Moon has us revisiting the idea of tattooing wood furniture: carving with words or images in the tradition of stealth carvings on park picnic tables, bars and old school desks.

Thanksgiving Blessings, from Dylan to Neruda

At some point during the Thanksgiving meal (or any meal), taking a moment to acknowledge all we have with whoever we are with is a fine way to give thanks and climb right into the moment. Here are our favorite blessings — which all can be said/read aloud, as a grace or a toast — though…

Maira Kalman’s Favorite Things (What are Yours?)

Maira Kalman’s strange little book My Favorite Things is an enduring beauty on our morning reading pile, a meditation really, on the ways rooms, hats, shoes, things of all sorts, resonate in our lives, inside and out.

Poem for Monday: Ode to the Happy Day

Holton Rower sent us this image, and Neruda’s Ode to the Happy Day jumped into our lap right after it. Although we’ve had some difficult things to deal with lately — everyone we know has had difficult things to deal with — we love imagining “nothing has happened to anyone“, and then being happy “just because I breathe”, if…

Extra Long Ribbon Book Mark to Mark Many Pages

Last weekend we bought a big fat book of Pablo Neruda’s odes for a dear friend’s birthday gift. Loving to improvise the presentation of our gifts, we went to our collection of found ribbons and wrappings wondering what would strike us. A very long, thin green ribbon gave us the answer: it would become a 3-foot+ bookmark that…

Dept of Impermanence: Ode to Broken Things

When our favorite 50’s coffee cup slipped off the counter and into the sink SLAM, right into a delicate glass for a double whammy of perfect breakage, we got an early morning reminder that this beautiful stuff we have is just that and NOT what’s essential. With Ai Weiwei and Pablo Neruda.

a brilliant, unlikely spot for a chair + Pablo Neruda’s Ode

An indoor chair placed on a mountain lookout made me wonder “Why not put an old indoor chair outdoors, for as long as it lasts?”, and reminded me of a Neruda poem. “Peace begins in a single chair.”

thanks for the day after thanksgiving

Thanks to the word that gives thanks. Thanks to the gratitude for how excellently the word melts snow or iron.

pablo neruda on the creative process

A while back, we accidentally ordered a book of poems by the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. We love his poetry, especially his odes, but weren’t crazy about the selections in this particular book. Or so we thought. We’ve discovered that opening it randomly often yields treasures we could have sworn weren’t there when we first…