My Love Of Poetry

One of my secret passions is poetry. I keep this passion quite private and I have only let a small handful of people hear/read my poetry, which includes my brother and my tiny creative writing class in college...in which many classmates ditched regularly (not including me). My poetry seems to tend toward the dark and twisty side and I fear it would scare people away since I am normally a fairly positive and optimistic person. It's something I have never been able to understand. I have tried to write happy, cheerful, and even romantic poetry; but those poetry attempts normally end up really cheezy and elementary.

So, instead of sharing my own poetry with you, I have decided to share with you one of my top favorite poems of all time by a poet I greatly enjoy.

Sonnet XVII (17)
by: Pablo Neruda

I do not love you as if you were the salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in the body.

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

than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

I imagine this to be the love I strive to share with someone someday.

Until then, these girls will fulfill the roles of the loves of my life.


Keep on Keepin on.