Sandra Tan
La Isla Negra

After “The Sea and the Bells” by Pablo Neruda

I am in a blue-tiled washroom
In an old house. A window opens 
Onto a garden, stretching to the sea, 
Over the low tops of houses
That gleam like terracotta.

My eye is a giant bird
Swooping down over the hill, 
Into the blue water
That is as flat as recognition,
That shivers like a corner of silk.

Tell me if we have made it,
If we have reached the end of telling.
They have all blown out of this garden,
This courtyard with the cream fountain
That plays its steady music,
Past the loose fronds of shrubs
Like long hair whipping in the wind
By the shore.

Piece by piece,
I am freeing my words:
This blue sky.
These gravel paths, like the gold of heaven.
The birds that roost in the trees
In evening, that seem to only fly in pairs.
I would gather all this light 
In my arms, let it drip through skin.
Let it return to me.
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Image by Zett Foto from Pexels
Sandra Tan is a poet from Singapore. She was a finalist for the 2025 Ninth Letter Literary Awards, longlisted for the 2024 National Poetry Competition (The Poetry Society), and nominated for the 2024 Panorama Prize. Her poetry has appeared in Anthropocene, Panorama: The Journal of Travel, Place, and Nature, The Oxonian Review, Quarterly Literary Review Singapore, The Kindling, Eastlit. Her website is https://sandratanwriting.carrd.co/, and her Instagram handle is @sandrafaitht.
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