friday feast: knock your socks off

~ jama


No socks greeting by Carrie Peters.

Okay, let me see your feet. Are you wearing socks?

If so, take them off immediately! Today is No Socks Day!

That’s right — a special day set aside to help the environment by doing a little less sock laundry. Happy toes, here I come!

Nope nope nope. You won’t find any socks here today. Not a one.

But there is this: I’ve had socks on my mind ever since I read Kristy Dempsey’s Poetry Conversation with her husband last month. She sent him a copy of Pablo Neruda’s Ode to My Socks, because he’s a person who relishes comfortable things. Do you know Neruda’s poem? I’m sure no one has ever described socks so eloquently. In fact, they sound so unbelievably exquisite, I doubt he could have gone without them today.

*

ODE TO MY SOCKS ♥
by Pablo Neruda


My dream socks (by resorta 425).

Maru Mori brought me
a pair
of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet
into them
as though into
two
cases
knitted
with threads of
twilight
and goatskin.

(Rest is here.)

Apparently, after reading the poem, Kristy’s husband kept thinking about those socks, along with a few other things he really loved: his pen, his pajamas. But then, he surprised Kristy with a poem of his own, à la Neruda:

ODE TO MY OFFICE CHAIR ♥
by Demps Demsey

Sam Walton brought me
a leather office chair
crafted by the sandpaper hands
of nickel and dime Banana republic laborers,
one chair
like a big friendly bear.
I slipped
my butt into it
as if
into
a billowy cloud
covered
with the fabric of
fog
and supple Italian leather.

(Rest the rest here.)

Pretty cool, no?

FOOTNOTE:


photo by vanderwal

Just because we’re not wearing socks today, doesn’t mean we have to go without soup (sacrilege). In fact, socks all over the country, freed of their podiatric obligations, have been assuming other guises and living it up:


Sock puppy sniffs out some veggie soup (photo by canndy).


      Argyle bunny gets in on the action (by canndy)

Okay, now remember: in case anybody asks you, you DID NOT see any socks here today:


photo by sockmonkeyfun

The Poetry Friday Roundup this week is at Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day. Do you think she’s wearing her socks or cooking them?


photo by francescabrown

“If it weren’t for women, men would still be wearing last week’s socks.”
~ Cynthia Nelms

40 thoughts on “friday feast: knock your socks off”

  1. I laughed out loud at “Footnote”. I don’t know if you intended for that to be a joke but it was funny.

    And Demps is happy you linked to his poem! I’m off to exercise and THEN to take my socks off.

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  3. Such a fun post! I especially love the part in Neruda’s poem about the “mad impulses” he resists. 🙂

    I’m afraid no socks day will have to wait here in the Northeast… at least till it warms up this afternoon!

    (I wonder what wastes more water: washing socks, or my daughters washing their bare feet at the end of the day… 😉

    Janet

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  5. Almost never wear socks? How could this be? What about the cover of your novel? Sigh. I hope the ones you’re wearing today are striped, colorful, and a little wild.

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  7. beauty is twice
    beauty
    and what is good is doubly
    good
    when it is a matter of two socks
    made of wool
    in winter.

    Seriously. We have forty-five mile and hour winds and pouring rain today, and my feet are encased in wool socks AND wool-lined slippers, so I can’t celebrate with you today, but I really love that socks elsewhere are taking the day off to be cute elsewhere.

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  10. Wow, it sounds so cold over there! Still raining, too? At least we’re seeing some sun today. Hope it warms up so you can go sockless sometime soon :).

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  13. I did not wear socks today, even though I didn’t know about the holiday. I think it’s going to be warm here and I wanted it to be… even though the library is freezing and my toes are cold right now.

    I am knitting my mother a pair of socks for Mother’s Day. Only one is finished so guess what I am doing on Saturday? 😉

    I love your sock dolls. I’ll pass on the sock soup though.

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  18. from Laura @ Author Amok

    Hi, Jama! A friend hand-knitted a pair of socks for my birthday this year. They are delicious and always make me thing of this poem! My students are working on simple odes this week, so I love the office chair ode!

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  20. Re: from Laura @ Author Amok

    Lucky you to have received some hand knitted socks this year. And it’s fun to read/write odes praising ordinary objects.

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  21. Consider them knocked

    My socks are off! The sock puppets and soup: hilarious!

    I was just talking to someone about socks she’s knitted.

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  22. I’m always impressed with how much thought and care participants into their posts. I’m usually scrambling.

    This is so much fun. From poetry to photos, you made me smile. Thank you.

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  24. Great post and poems. And WHERE do you find those pics?! 🙂

    No socks here. Of course, the holiday happens on a day when I have to go out of the house, but it’s warm and sunny enough that sandals will do just fine!

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  29. NoSocks!

    My neighbor says he can always tell when I’m going someplace very important because I put shoes on…I tend to live my life barefoot. So, no socks AND no shoes for me today!!!

    Thanks for the Neruda poem – don’t you love these lines:

    I resisted
    the mad impulse
    to put them
    into a golden
    cage
    and each day give them
    birdseed
    and pieces of pink melon.

    (I think the photo of your “dream socks” do look just like tropical birds!}

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  30. Re: NoSocks!

    Those really are great lines — the birdseed and pink melon! Ah!

    So now you’ve revealed yourself as the barefoot poet — what a bohemian! 😉

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  31. Such great reading (and photos) at your site! Sandals went on this morning, and now that I know about No Socks Day, all the more glad to have made that decision!

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  33. Dang. I missed No Socks Day. However, we had our Multicultural Celebration at school yesterday, so that was a No Regular Schedule Day, which is at least similar in spirit, if not footwear. LOVE Neruda’s Odes (I kept reading down the page). Maybe my next form of poetry to try…

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  35. I loved Kristy’s poem too! Love what you did with the theme.

    And me, it has to be really, really cold before I put socks on. Barefoot girl here.

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