If You Forget Me

Just because I like it, here is a lovely poem by Pablo Neruda.

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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
Ahh my love, ahh 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

Poem Spree!

From the dawn of your smile on me I could see
Its magnificence might cause a fatality
For it lit up the whole night and warmed me like sunlight,
Inspired my surrender: a white flag at first sight.
I couldn't resist the allure of your lips,
And the smile in your kiss tastes like mist and rose hips:
So fresh, like the first glimpse of sunrise. I know I
Am in way too deep to pretend I can keep my
Emotion a secret-I know you can see it.
My love was inside, and your smile unleashed it.

And that was my demise, not the light in your eyes,
Nor the glow of your skin or the way your hand glides
On my hair. No, its there: above your clefted chin
Where the tan of your whiskers turns into pink skin
Of your lips, turning up like the curve of your cup,
Framing pearls of your teeth. You don't know how to stop
Tempting me. So you see, to that smile I'm a slave,
Don't know how to behave since the moment you gave
Me that grin- I gave in. I give in. And you win.
And I hope I have something that you delight in,
That inspires your poems and fills up your dreams
The way I am inspired when your smile beams
For then you understand what I try to describe:
Mere words can't convey what your smile does inside.


If one day I awoke and I found that you'd gone
My world would collapse and I'd find before long
That its easiest to forget things I loved so:
The slant of your cheekbones, the flare of your nose.
The shade of your eyelids, the silk in your touch,
The lilt of your voice... might not haunt me...too much...
And little by little I may seem less bereaved,
But that smile-your smile- it might never leave.



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We've been frequenting Open Mic at Busboys and Poets on Tuesday nights, and I've been inspired by the great - and sometimes mediocre - poetry. I decided to dust off my writing cap and try my hand at it since I do enjoy poetry and also want to exercise my writing muscles (particularly as I prepare to write grad school essays...) I've started with easy, inspiring things: Sasan's voice, which was the first thing I noticed about him; his smile; and a heartfelt plea for forgiveness (Have you ever felt like that? Don't you hate it? That urgent, humiliating, nauseating realization that you - yes you - have done something so beneath you?)



Next, maybe I'll tackle something more socially aware. Like the war.

Asking for Forgiveness

My heart can't sleep, my eyes can't weep.
I prostrate myself at your feet,
Hands held up, weak, for you to speak
Forgiveness into my parched ears.

Your words - my manna from above -
Condmening my negligent love
Will also nourish that part of
My heart that's longing to be near

To you...I write these humble words
To put my penance into verse,
In hopes that I can break the curse
My foolish actions brought on me.

For if a poem my transgression
Then a poem my redemption:
Please forgive my indiscretion.
Come from heaven, set me free.

Sasan's Voice

The drizzle of his chocolate voice into my ear was not my choice.
But his lips part, my heartbeat starts Kaleidoscoping abstract art-
Like rain on the Serengeti pounds sandcastles of confetti
Into a pulse of colored flecks...his cocoa kisses on my neck
Feel like a rainstorm's throbbing drum, within my ears, upon my tongue.
Kahlua's an intoxicant, dark chocolate's antioxidant
But leave to me my drug of choice, my only fix: his velvet voice.