Tag Archive for 'Pablo Neruda'

2010 Poet Laureate: W.S. Merwin

jordan published on July 2, 2010 in art. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I know it’s not the 2nd or 4th Friday of the month, but when I read this in the paper today, I had to share it with all of you:

W.S. Merwin Appointed as Next Poet Laureate

(via Matt Valentine/Library of Congress/AP Photo)

What is the Poet Laureate?  An honorary position appointed by the US government to a poet to promote the artform on a national level.  Who is W.S. Merwin?  At 83 he is perhaps the greatest living poet — a master who won his second Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his book The Shadow of Sirius.

He’s also my favorite poet of all time (after Neruda, whose work we would not be able to truly appreciate without Merwin’s translations).  You can read my previous posts about Merwin here and here.

A Zen Buddhist and an outspoken environmentalist who lives on his own Zero One like converted plantation in Haiku, Maui — Merwin embodies many of the ideals we strive for at SuperForest.

For A Coming Extinction

Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing

I write as though you could understand
And I could say it
One must always pretend something
Among the dying
When you have left the seas nodding on their stalks
Empty of you
Tell him that we were made
On another day

The bewilderment will diminish like an echo
Winding along your inner mountains
Unheard by us
And find its way out
Leaving behind it the future
Dead
And ours

When you will not see again
The whale calves trying the light
Consider what you will find in the black garden
And its court
The sea cows the Great Auks the gorillas
The irreplaceable hosts ranged countless
And fore-ordaining as stars
Our sacrifices
Join your work to theirs
Tell him
That it is we who are important

It’s truly a great day for poetry and a great day for SuperForest.  If you’ve never read Merwin before, here’s several links where you can immerse yourself in the magic of his words (and voice): npr.org, pbs.org, poemhunter.

Patricia’s Journal (05/04/10): Papercut Funtimes NERUDA Edition

patricia published on April 5, 2010 in build, celebrity and superforest journal. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

Thank you to SuperForester Jordan and his amazing Found Poetry Fridays for familiarising me with wonderful Pablo Neruda!

I loved this poem:

xxp

Found Poetry Friday: Laughter

jordan published on August 28, 2009 in art. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .
On the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month SuperForester Jordan “rediscovers” a literary gem from the vast treasure trove of an art form that, in our technological age, has become largely under-appreciated and “lost”.

A funny thing about being a twin is that even from thousands of miles apart you often find your wavelengths aligning in mysterious ways.  Having just returned from a 3 week Hidden Hawaii vacation (video post to come!), I open SuperForest to find my brother Aaron’s Inspiration Information post on Laughter (which is so great, if you haven’t yet read it).

And of course my twin’s post opens with a quote from a book I just that day randomly finished reading: Milan Kundera’s great “Book of Laughter and Forgetting”. Which gifted me another beautiful quote — “Someone bursting out in ecstatic laughter is without memory and without desire.  Laughter is the expression of being rejoicing in being.”

So in honor of laughter, of kinship and twinship, and of my favorite poet… I give you this word jewel:

Your Laughter

Take bread away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

Do not take away the rose,
the lance flower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

My struggle is harsh and I come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

My love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
I want your laughter like
the flower I was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

Laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when I open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for I would die.

Pablo Neruda

Found Poem Fridays: Neruda’s Love Sonnets

jordan published on May 8, 2009 in celebrity. 3 Comments Tags: , , , .

On the 2nd and 4th Friday of every month SuperForester Jordan “rediscovers” a literary gem from the vast treasure trove of an art form that, in our technological age, has become largely under-appreciated and “lost”.

My theme for this month is LOVE.  Why?  Because it is my favorite theme.  And when it comes to Love, to the wide, vast complex world and web of emotions that the love spider spins in this world, and the ways it can and does touch each and every one of us in some profound way… well to me, no one else can quite capture in words all that Love is, means, can be and can do… than Pablo Neruda.

Chilean born, Neruda was and still is considered one of the greatest Poets of his or any age.  Here he is pictured with his third wife, and the love of his life, Matilda.  To whom he wrote and dedicated what I think is, like the Taj Mahal, one of the greatest monuments to Love ever created —  “Cien Sonetos de Amor”.

The book is just that, 100, 14 line poems, each on the subject of love, all dedicated to his wife Matilda.  They are simple, beautiful, romantic, profound, heart-wrenching, heart-breaking, heart-aching works of art.  I can only post one here, but I urge you to read them all.

Sonnet XVII: Love 

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.

	-- Pablo Neruda