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24 Apr 2024
Diana
Raab
Full Moon
May 8th
Our Hands
Apr 8th
After Your Hands
by Pablo Neruda
When a handshake is firm it’s a sign
of a good soul, said my father.
Beware of a limp handshake.
When you run your good hands up
and down my body, I let it shake
with simple joy.
And so I have closed my eyes, my love,
for six decades, to feel this even better,
as I turn away from the dark knowing
that one day it shall be no more.
Behind the poem...
Many of my poems are ‘after’ those by Pablo Neruda. This one, a response to Neruda’s Your Hands, was inspired by my father. He taught me how handshakes can tell us a lot about people. A strong handshake, he said, often meant a person was honest and trustworthy. Then again, it’s also true that different types of handshakes are simply due to cultural differences.
