In his Unterwegs zur Sprache, Martin Heidegger postulates the existence of a supposedUnique Poem, one that simultaneously conceives origin and destiny of the poetic work. We propose a reading of the work of the brazilian poet Manuel Bandeira in this perspective. We postulate tenderness as origin but also as the underlying concept of each individual poem. Tenderness may be the place where a promise is kept, giving shelter, uniting and unfolding, in a paradoxical way, the possibilities of writing itself.