I have posted this various places over the years, but I can’t repost it enough. It’s just too beautiful.
Sonnet XI
I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.
I hunger for your sleek laugh,
your hands the color of a savage harvest,
hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails,
I want to eat your skin like a whole almond.
I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,
the sovereign nose of your arrogant face,
I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes,
and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue.
– Pablo Neruda
January 20, 2009 at 11:53 am
I love this poem. I absolutely adore it.
January 23, 2009 at 10:53 am
I love the nature imagery in this poem: stones, savage harvest, sun, water, almond, puma. These are the things that seem to attract the author to his beloved–her connection to the natural world. If you really like Neruda, check out Red Poppy at http://www.redpoppy.net. It’s a non-profit set up to create a documentary about Neruda, publish his biography, and translate his works into English.