Poets walk slowly

In the film, Il Postino, the postman asks Pablo Neruda, the character playing Neruda, how you become a poet. 

Neruda replies, You walk along the shore, slowly. Then there is further discussion of expressing what you feel. And metaphors.

This, mind you, is how I remembered it. It was a film. There were close-ups of the actor’s faces. The sound of their voices in Italian. Me, reading subtitles. Shots of the beach. People walking along it. It was very expressive. And music.

I can hardly expect you to watch all 108 minutes of the movie for a line or two that will almost certainly not be precisely as I have noted it.

And perhaps you will be more struck by the white foosball in beautiful Beatrice’s mouth, another character. A shot of the moon. The postman’s face and the circle he draws on a page in a notebook.

The postman asks Neruda if all that you see is a metaphor for life. In the film. 

As I am remembering it.

The character playing Neruda says he will take a swim and think about the postman’s question and answer him tomorrow. Then he walks into the sea.

The film maker cuts to another scene.

Of course, I was interested in this story. I have made my own attempts at becoming a poet.

I walk to the river.

But how to select the words that will express what you feel. How do you even discover what it is that you feel? Is feel even the right word?

It takes something less than 108 minutes to walk in a straight line to the river and back. I have walked it countless times with countless pauses and asides.

Words. A film of words.

There is a scene, the sky is reflected in the river. I should be able to make something of that.

And Beatrice.

And me. Who’s face could you get to portray the searching look on my face as I stare out my window not finding the words?

And then the music swells and there's a long shot of the river.

Roll credits.