tonight i can write the saddest lines - pablo neruda

Here's an audio recording of Andy Garcia reading Pablo Neruda's, Tonight I can write the saddest lines, from the fabulous soundtrack from the movie Il Postino.

Hard Choices

Image source: www.writeclickscrapbook.com

Neither of my parents finished high school, but they are both avid-readers and life-long learners. When I was growing up, they would challenge us to pick a poem and have it memorized by dinner. I fell in love with William Blake, because of his loveliness, and now I realize, because many of his poems are only four lines.

I could pick a different favorite every day of the year. A dozen of Mary Oliver's, twice that of Emily Dickinson. The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Mother to Son by Langston Hughes. Hopkins and Woodsworth and Galway Kinnell. Cummings and Yeats and William Stafford. Now I know why I posted this challenge: so I'd have an excuse to peruse our shelf of poetry and reread all the dog-earred favorites.

I know I just snuck ten poems into the above paragraph, but I'll only take up a bit more space with this one, an old and today's favorite, by Wendell Berry.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Love Sonnet XVII

by Pablo Neruda


No te amo como si fueras rosa de sal, topacio
o flecha de chaveles que propagan el fuego:
te amo como se aman ciertas cosas oscuras,
secretamente, entre la sombra y el alma.

Te amo como la planta que no florece y lleva
dentro de si, escondida, la luz de aquellas flores,
y gracias a tu amor vive oscuro en mi cuerpo
el apretado aroma que acendio de la tierra.

Te amo sin saber como, ni cuando, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
asi te amo porque no se amar de otra manera,

sino asi de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mia,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueno.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I do not love you as if you were a 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 my 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.



*We asked one of our groomsmen to recite this poem in Spanish at our wedding ceremony, then one of our bridesmaids recited it in English.*

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

-Mary Oliver

Cutting for Stone

Natalie has let us know that we'll be meeting on October 20th to discuss Cutting for Stone.  If you haven't gotten it yet, I recommended starting today---we'll need the full month to finish it!  But everyone who has read it assures me it is well worth it. Can't wait to see you all at Natalie's!

Meanwhile...since we aren't meeting this month, and because I suddenly have an insatiable appetite for poems, I wondered how each of you would feel about sharing a favorite poem. It does not have to be your favorite-est poem of all time---that will make you freeze and unable to commit. Just one of your favorites, one you like, one that speaks to you today.

Post it here on the blog with the poet's name, or bring it to Natalie's to share with us. Are you game?

Thanks for Enduring the Storm

Thanks for coming to book club last night. Sorry if I talked too much. Love, Catherine

Pope Joan movie trailer

Fun meeting tonight! And the storm made it so much more exciting ;)

Here's the trailer for the film of Pope Joan, it might be interesting to watch as well.

I'm looking forward to beginning the next book!

CeCe