Poem of the week: Completely Friday - Luis García Montero

Here's a poet whose poem showed up in a weekly poetry email I receive from poets.org. I know absolutely nothing about him, even after googling him, except that he's a Spanish contemporary poet.

Having said that, this poem just struck me as soon as I read it as being beautiful. I know it's Monday today, but doesn't it feel like a Friday by the time you finish? (By some happy coincidence, you might be reading it on a Friday, as I did a few days ago - good for you!)

I love so many lines, such as "by the orderly books and broom on the floor", "city that undresses completely Friday," and the whole second-last stanza is wonderful! And so is the ending - one of the hardest parts of writing a poem is having a good ending, and his is so effortless and yet so poignant.

Enjoy, as I have...

Completely Friday
by Luis García Montero
(translated by Katie King)

By the detergents and dish soap
by the orderly books and broom on the floor,
by the clean windows, by the table
without papers, notebooks or pens,
by the easy chairs without newspapers,
whoever approaches my house
will find a day
that is completely Friday.

That is how I find it
when I go out into the streets
and the cathedral has been
taken over by the world of the living
and in the supermarket
June becomes a bottle of gin,
sausages and dessert,
fan of light in the kiosk
of the flower shop,
city that undresses completely Friday.

As does my body
which recalls the memory of your body
and foretells your presence
in the restlessness of all it touches,
in the remote control for the music,
in the paper of the magazine,
in the ice melted away
just as the morning melts away
completely Friday.

When the front door opens
the icebox divines what my body knew
and suggests other titles for this poem:
completely you,
morning of the return, good love,
good company.