if you forget me

I have recently rediscovered my love of poetry.

Pablo Neruda

Now, I will probably never love it as much as I do literature, because I like details: I love knowing about characters, what they're thinking, what they're doing, where they came from, etc. But poetry is intriguing. I like to think of a good poem as literature on steroids, because a good poet can pack a punch as potent as any novelist in a mere few lines. It's pretty amazing. So I've started reading a few poems every night before I go to bed as opposed to only reading a chapter from my book or watching a Glee rerun.

I think I might start sharing a poem with y'all every weekend. It will probably be one that kinda sums up how I'm feeling, and one that I think you may enjoy reading.

Here's a poem from Pablo Neruda, who is quite possibly my favorite poet of all time:

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. 

- Pablo Neruda


Gorgeous, isn't it?