WARN-ING

n. reading this blog may be hazardous to your complacency

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Library Lovin

While watching one of my favorite episodes, Bad Timing, from my favorite show Girlfriends, I was introduced to Pablo Neruda.


In this episode Joan has to decide between Sean, the man who "may be the one" and Davis, all on V Day!

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Pablo Neruda is described as one of the greatest poets of all time. However, it was not until I watched this episode for the umpteenth time that I actually paid attention and decided to learn more about the great poet.

From then, I had to read and learn more. Thus, after reading some of his love sonnets, all inspired by his wife, I searched the Internet looking for copies of his literature. However, because I remembered that there was an independent bookstore right next to where I worked, Amaranth Books, I decided to go there in support of the business and for a better deal J.  I had wanted to go in since passing by for the past 3 weeks and now I really had a reason to.

While I did not find exactly what I was looking for, Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets, I did find a book entitled The Essential Neruda Selected Poems. It was not until after I checked out that I then remembered how I wanted Black Skin, White Masks. So I went and searched for that within the African American section. That then led me to The Souls of Black Folk and Images in Black: 150 Years of Black Collectibles. It was some good Library Lovin. In the meantime, I must get trough Race Matters and The Autobiography of Malcolm X, from last summer, and The First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism.

I share with you 2 sonnets that I have come to Love thus far:



  Sonnet XVII

  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.


  Sonnet XI

  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 Q





3 comments:

Niki McNeill Brown said...

i'm not a huge poetry fan but i love pablo neruda!! my middle school spanish teacher used to read us his stuff in spanish an make us translate. it's beautiful poetry in english, but GORGEOUS in spanish.

Dre' Leon said...

thanks for putting me on...i want more after reading that!

in response to your question on my blog (what kind of camera do i use) - I use a Nikon F3 w/ cheap Fuji film from walmart. I got it for about $250 (but it came w/ a whole bunch of other equipment, i.e 50mm lens)

I'm sure if you looked on ebay you can find a nice one for a good price. what is gonna cost you is the lenses...man they are a grip.

I'm trying to pick up some other camera and try out different mediums...for instance the polariod sx-70. i'll probably be able to get the camera for $40 but the film is killer expensive!!!

you should check out holga cameras, although they are cheap cameras (construction) they produce some really interesting results. they have a HUGE underground following. go to flickr and type in holga.

C.L. Jones said...

These two poems are phenomenal.