Kite and Quilt: Olives Senior's exploration of her poetic inheritance

In the poem 'Ode to Pablo Neruda', published in her most recent collection of

poetry, over the rooft of the world (2005), Olive Senior finds herself 'drifting and

wordless', so far from the sea she cannot strike the right chord. The poet nanator

calls upon the spirit and word-craft of Pablo Neruda to help her re-discover the

lost measure that will move others:

So I tum to find again something you said

about grasping poetry like a thread?

Here it is:

You must spin it

fly a thread

and climb it ...

This isn't a matter

for deliberation

its an order.

('Ode to Pablo Neruda' 92)