Let us sit down to eat

with all those who haven't eaten;

let us spread great tablecloths,

put salt in the lakes of the world,

set up planetary bakeries,

tables with strawberries in snow,

and a plate like the moon itself

from which we can all eat.

For now I ask no more

than the justice of eating.

-Pablo Neruda

I have never read much Pablo Neruda, but after reading this excerpt from his poem "The Great Tablecloth" I have put him on my list of writers to read. I think I will pick up a collection of some of his poems for my flight overseas--sidenote: it is going to be so sad for me to say goodbye to all of my books! This poem is so beautiful in English that it makes me want to know Spanish so I can see the power it has in the language in which it was written.