Pablo Neruda is a Beautiful Poet

Poetry is a beautiful way to convey the deepest emotions of the heart.  I feel that song lyrics and poetry are also some of the best ways to express love.

I stumbled upon the poet Pablo Neruda recently, and I had never heard of him before.  Actually, Neruda was #2 of top 500 poets the other day on www.poemhunter.com  before even Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and William Shakespeare.  However, when I just checked a few moments ago, Dickinson and Shakespeare have surpassed Neruda, who is holding his own in fourth place.  He is DEFINITITELY worth checking out (currently #4, #8, and #17 top poems of top 500 poem list are by Neruda on www.poemhunter.com).

According to Wikipedia, Neruda is a  Chilean poet who lived from 1904-1973 who chose that pen name (and later legal name) after a Czech poet, Jan Neruda.  Kudos to Neruda, and as I am part Czech and my Grandpa came over from there as a child, so thus I find his choice of name exceptionally awesome.  Also, kudos to whoever (i.e. inspiring teacher or poet aficionado or random cool person) has written various quotes by Pablo Neruda in a classroom at a building where I work….they led me to stumble onto Neruda and his love poetry.  Some of his poetry may be slightly racy, but nowhere near as racy (in my opinion) as Song of Solomon in the Bible.  A final random note from the entry on Neruda at Wikipedia states that he “always wrote in green ink as it was his personal colour of hope.”  I relate 100-fold, because most of the time I write in purple pen, since purple is one of my favorite colors, it is quite beautiful and inspiring, and it is a break from the dull monotony of black ink.

Here are some poetry excerpts by Neruda.  Enjoy!

Excerpt from “If You Forget Me” (Currently #4 on top 500 Poems; source= www.poemhunter.com)

“But

if each day,

each hour,

you feel that you are destined for me

with implacable sweetness,

if each day a flower

climbs up to your lips to seek me,

ah my love, ah my own,

in me all that fire is repeated,

in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,

my love feeds on your love, beloved,

and as long as you live it will be in your arms

without leaving mine.”

~Pablo Neruda

excerpt from Sonnet XVII (source: www.poemhunter.com)

“I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.

I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;

so I love you because I know no other way…”

~ Pablo Neruda

A third excerpt by Pablo Neruda is from “Tie Your Heart At Night To Mine, Love,”

(source: www.poemhunter.com)

“So that our dream might reply

to the sky’s questioning stars

with one key, one door closed to shadow”

~ Pablo Neruda