A few years back, I did a five-day hot stone massage course at Jing Advanced Massage in Brighton. The stones are basalt, a volcanic rock, and they have a high iron content, which keeps them warm. Heat is really soothing in a massage, increasing circulation and easing pain. One of Jing’s director’s, Meg, read from Neruda’s Stones of the Sky to give us inspiration at the start of the course. I’m a huge fan of poetry and bought the book. it was written in 1970, three years before Neruda’s death and his health was already failing, and perhaps he was thinking about returning to the earth. The last poem in the book, XXX, begins:
Hot Rocks
