8/29/08

In honor of Ginnie's bday...

And also Jared having to take a 20th-century poetry class...

I give you one of Ginnie's favorite poems, that has, in turn, become one of my favorite poems...

(Don't you just adore sonnets? They are one of my very favorites. If I'm gonna love poetry, I've got to have some structure, man.)

Sonnet XVII
(100 Love Sonnets, 1960)
Pablo Neruda

I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you simply, without problems or pride:
I love you in this way because I don't know any other way of loving

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

2 comments:

Ginnie said...

OH for tender! Thanks for putting that on for me!

Lildonbro said...

I love that Sonnet too!
Thanks for posting it and thanks Ginnie for that being your favorite so I could read it today! :) You guys are great :p