My Favorite Poem(s)

So my good bloggy friend T.L.C. asked me what my favorite poem was the other day. And that got me thinking.

One of them you've seen here on my blog before: "somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond." That's by one of my favorite-ever poets, e.e. cummings.

But I couldn't stop at just one! I have another favorite poem. It's by Pablo Neruda and it's called "Tonight I can write the saddest lines."


Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example,'The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.'

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me sometimes, and I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another's. She will be another's. Like my kisses before.
Her voide. Her bright body. Her inifinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that's certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my sould is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.


Le sigh. Basically the more lovelorn and melancholy the poem, the more my heart swells. Violins have a similar effect on me. If you can read in Spanish, I highly recommend reading it in its original form.

Sixpence None the Richer created a song using the lines of the poem in Spanish as the lyrics. I personally love it:



So what are your favorite poems? Let me know in a comment! :)

14 comment(s):

Usha Pisharody said...

One of them is Neruda's "A Dog has Died".

One of my favourites is this one you have shared. In fact most of his poetry simply gets under the skin and jolts you to a newer level of experience while at the same time drawing you in to the experience itself!

Good to read it again, on more time!

Unknown said...

I love how your describe Neruda's poetry. It's so true, it really does get under the skin.

Anonymous said...

That's one of my fav poems too... and I actually looove all of Neruda's poems. Then, there's Plath (deep, drawing you in with so much might kind), then Dickinson...I don't so much like nature poems though!

Hannahkin said...

i have to agree with Naperville Mom about Sylvia Plath. i can't say that i adore her poetry, but there's something about it that stings. it's gritty, and painfully beautiful. she drew such unusual similes: "Before they came the air was calm enough/Coming and going, breath by breath, without any fuss./Then the tulips filled it up like a loud noise." i love her phrases, her honesty. "And I am aware of my heart; it opens and closes/Its bowl of red blooms out of sheer love of me." it makes me want to scream!

i also love ee cummings... genius! "i carry your heart with me(i carry it in" is amazing.

Robert Browning's poetry is wickedly vicious. in a very wrong sort of way, i love The Laboratory.

i don't know if you've heard of a poet named Oswald Mtshali? i'll send you a link :)

Unknown said...

@Hanny: Please send me a link, cus I've never heard of that poet. :)

tasha said...

Love the poem, the new banner aaaaand your Cullen pic!

=]

Pillow Biter said...

Cute banner- nice and homey! Good job!

Marc said...

Sixpence is awesomeness, by the way.

My fav? Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. First poem I ever, truly loved.

nsiyer said...

One of my favourite's is Milton's Paradise Lost. So touching and gives one goose pimples.
Your poem was highly romantic and touching.

Indyeah said...

Absolutely love this one by Neruda:)
And Usha indeed has described it beautifully...she is quite a poetess herself:)

Ana your new header is AWESOME!
and very you!:))
not just you and the boyF but also lolcat:D
awesome:D

Unknown said...

@Indyeah: Of course the Lolcat had to be in there somewhere. :p

Katia Shtefan said...

This might sound really egotistic, but my favorite poet is well...me. I guess nothing has really impacted me in the way that my own poems have. Although I do love many Russian poets: Pasternak, Mandelshtam, Pushkin, Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Lermontov, Brodsky, Borodinsky...the list is endless. And then there's the Song of Songs in the Bible--one of the greatest works of poetry ever written.

By the way, if you really like Neruda, check out Red Poppy at www.redpoppy.net/pablo_neruda.php. It's a non-profit set up to create a documentary about Neruda, publish his biography, and translate his works into English. To see our blog on Neruda’s literary activism, go to http://www.redpoppy.net/journal/Pablo_Neruda_Presente.html.

TLC said...

That poem was just beautiful. So full of emotion. I won’t forget that one!

To me...Edgar Allen Poe's Annabelle Lee will be a favorite to my heart. It's been quoted to me since I was little and the lines...."to love with a love that was more than a love..." **sigh** truly gets to me.

But also, one that I BEG...yearn...crave {{{!!!}}} to hear by a Strong male voice is Henry the 5ths St. Crispin Speech.

I L.O.V.E. it and it just makes me wish for men to be more like that in this day...to fight with such honor in the fear of something dangerous.

Pink Mama (Rose) said...

I see we have some things in common. I'm a poet & love the color pink too.

One of my fav poems is Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost.