Thursday, July 4, 2013

Pablo Neruda is my Patronus

I was read a post recently by Awesomely Luvvie where she mentioned Neruda and I just had to give a personal shout-out here.

I refer to several people as my Patronus, each of them serves a different purpose. A Patronus is supposed to take the form of an animal (in my case a person because I hate animals, they're only fit for food and manual labour) with whom you share the deepest affinity. I share an affinity with several people so therefore when I give them Expecto Patronum I'm expecting different people for different situations, too many damn Dementors in this world.

Gabrielle 'Coco' Chanel is my Fashion Patronus, she's acerbic, mean, witty, fashionable AF and would probably Aveda Kedavra a ho if necessary.

Joan Smalls, Giselle Bundchen, Naomi Campbell and Christy Turlington are my Model Patronus' (patronuses? patroni? help me out here). Faces like cut glass, walk mean as hell, bodies like yes Lawd!

Oscar Wilde is my Literary Patronus because he writes a hell of a play, has dropped the greatest bon mots the world has ever seen and is pretty much the funniest writer ever.

Jackie Onassis and Michelle Obama are my Alpha Female Patronus' because they're far too fabulous to be mortals, they have to be some sort of celestial guardians.

Beyonce is my Everything Patronus because she's well... Beyonce.

Now when it comes to the lyrical written word, the Sultan of Sonnets, the Warlock of Wooing, the eternal Prince of Hearts and fellow July baby (July 12), my personal Poet Patronus is Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalta aka Pablo Neruda.


Look at my boo!! 

The first time I heard of Pablo Neruda I was 9 years old and Library Prefect in Grade 5 at Grange School, I practically lived in the library at the time. One day I found an old annual from the Seventies I think it was, and in it there was an interview of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and in it he said Pablo Neruda was the greatest poet of the 20th century. At the time I was very into poetry and writing short stories so I tried to find poems written by Neruda which was virtually impossible seeing as there was no internet, I asked my Library Teacher, she had never heard of him and so couldn't help me. I mentally filed the name away and promptly forgot about it.

Fast forward about 6 years later, I stumbled upon his 1924 anthology 'Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair' and it was on and cracking since then. I've been a fan ever since.

Below are my three favourite sonnets.

I invite you all to get your lives and let his words bless you, this is gospel.......


I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair
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.




Don't Go Far Off
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -- 
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying? 



And in case you thought it was all sweetness and light and longing in Casa Neruda he has a warning for all you errant lovers...

If You Forget Me
I want you to know
one thing.

You know how this is:
if I look
at the crystal moon, at the red branch
of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch
near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats
that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly
you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

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. 


*sigh*

*double sigh*

*triple sigh*

Salute!

Love and light xx
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16 comments

  1. I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
    I love you directly without problems or pride:
    I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
    except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
    so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
    so close that your eyes close with my dreams.
    Pablo Neruda is theway to my heart!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. *sigh*

      Pure, unconditional love....best.

      Delete
    2. I'm not into poetry, but that is sooooooooo pretty!

      Are you sure I won't use some of his stuff for my wedding?

      Delete
  2. Wow! Thanks Daks.

    Carthartic in all kinds of ways!

    Now Pablo...let's get to know each other better shall we?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see you're Potterhead. Respect!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Love love this guy!
    ...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...

    Memories of this poem and my one great love... :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like Neruda. My ex introduced me, because he was in love with Neruda. Some of that sensibility seeped into me, but my own poetry awakening was maybe Khalil Gibran. Before that, the Bible. Ah, there were a lot of others.

    I have a couple of new collections, one of them mentions Neruda actually.

    Surprised that people dig poetry in this crazy town!

    ReplyDelete
  6. BTW, the guy who loved Neruda, he was also mad about: Isabel Allende (got me reading that too), Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and a little Egyptian movie I took him to titled Duniya (Kiss Me Not On The Eyes.) Pretty certain that you'll get goosebumps with all three, though for me they were not life-changing. Yeah, watch Duniya.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I can't believe you hate animals...even dogs? :(

    ReplyDelete
  8. Chaucer is my Patronus, discovered him before my GCSE's when my brother was studying for his GCSE's, wish I had more time to read...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Chaucer is my Patronus, discovered him before my GCSE's when my brother was taking his GCSE's, wish I had more time to read....

    ReplyDelete
  10. My first boyfriend when I was 10 copied,I Crave Your Mouth, Your Voice, Your Hair and I thought He was God, until I discovered Neruda when I came to the states, I memorized everything by heart. He personifies Love.

    And this is why I love you, Potter lover, Neruda Lover,

    ReplyDelete
  11. I remember the first time Neruda captured, i was watching an episode of Girlfriends and Joan recited "i crave your mouth" to her boyfriend. I was amazed, i went to look for it immediatly and fell in love with his poems.

    ReplyDelete

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