Ode to/for a New year

I have been wanting to post something new and here it is Groundhog Day and nothing since Christmas. So I thought I'd better do something to show my readers that I am still around. I've been reading a lot of Pablo Neruda lately and here's his "Ode to Ironing":

Poetry is white:
it comes from the water covered with drops,
it wrinkles and piles up,
the skin of this planet must be stretched,
the sea of its whiteness must be ironed,
and the hands move and move,
the holy surfaces are smoothed out,
and that is how things are made:
hands make the world each day,
fire becomes one with steel,
linen, canvas, and cotton arrive
from the combat of the laundries,
and out of light a dove is born:
chastity returns from the foam.

This poem brings back early childhood memories of talking to my grandmother as she ironed. I can almost hear the hiss and smell the steam and spray starch....

More Neruda soon. Belated Happy New Year!