Ode to My Socks
by Pablo Neruda

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
which she knitted with her own
sheepherder hands,
two socks as soft
as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as if they were
two
cases
knitted
with threads of
twilight
and the pelt of sheep.
Outrageous socks,
my feet became
two fish
made of wool,
of ultramarine blue
crossed
by one golden hair,
two gigantic blackbirds,
two cannons:
my feet
were honored in this way
by
these
heavenly
socks.
They were
so beautiful
that for the first time
my feet seemed to me
unacceptable
like two decrepit
firemen, firemen
unworthy
of that embroidered
fire,
of those luminous
socks.
Nevertheless,
I resisted
the sharp temptation
to save them
as schoolboys
keep
fireflies,
as scholars
collect
sacred documents,
I resisted
the wild impulse
to put them
in a golden
cage
and each day give them
birdseed
and chunks of pink melon.
Like explorers
in the jungle
who hand over the rare
green deer
to the roasting spit
and eat it
with remorse,
I stretched out
my feet
and pulled on
the
magnificent
socks
and
then my shoes.

And the moral of my ode
is this:
beauty is twice
beauty
and what is good is doubly
good
when it's a matter of two
woolen socks
in winter.

Commentary: Pablo Neruda, a great Latin American poet, takes a mundane article of clothing and encourages us to appreciate its existence with wonder and spiritual significance. The socks are special initially because they are a gift. One can learn to appreciate inexpensive gifts made from a person's own hands with love. Neruda fills these socks with delight, with joy. He slips them on and his feet are transformed. How wonderful it is to take an everyday common object and give it the same regard as a designer dress. They both deserve our respect and love. And should one value something and imbrue it with beauty and magnificence so then to just view it in a golden cage? Neruda chooses to honor its function and allow its sacrifice. Because when an object, whether humble or expensive, is used for its intended purpose and that use collides with the perfect occasion then the Good and the Beauty are doubly so. I used to know about super expensive audio equipment but it is doubly good to discover and listen to the music. One can own expensive cameras but not take very good pictures. Be an artist with cracked and dirty hands, who can meld form and function and create beauty in the mundane.

Preparation...

"He who Knows does not Speak; He who Speaks does not Know." --Tao Te Ching Here's a story... "One cold winter morning a young man walks five miles through the snow. He knocks on the Jademaster's door. The Jademaster answers with a broom in his hand. "Yes?" "I want to learn about Jade." "Very well then, come in out of the cold." They sit by the fire sipping hot green tea. The Jademaster presses a green stone deeply into the young man's hand and begins to talk about tree frogs. After a few minutes, the young mad interrupts. "Excuse me, I am here to learn about Jade, not tree frogs." The Jademaster takes the stone and tells the young man to go home and return in a week. The following week the young man returns. The Jademaster presses another green stone into the young man's hand and continues the story. Again, the young man interrupts. Again, the Jademaster sends him home. Weeks pass. The young man interrupts less and less. The young man also learns to brew the hot green tea, clean up the kitchen and sweep the floors. Spring comes. One day, the young man observes, "The stone I hold is not genuine Jade." --Ed Seykota