Poetry Thursday - a favorite by Neruda

Love is a difficult path to walk. The illusions of happily-ever-after are simply fairy tales of our naive youth. And yet, amidst the trials and tribulations, love offers us the purest and grandest beauty of life's experiences.
I first began reading Pablo Neruda in 2004 following my divorce. I cannot recall the specifics of how I became introduced to the music of his words, only that from my reading of his very first word, I began to fall in love. Unlike the illusory romances of my past, I began to fall in love with myself and with life and with the world around me. Through my own internal trials and tribulations, I began to learn the reality of love rather than the fairy tale. And despite the obstacles, the beauty and peace I found within myself during that time propelled me into a new way of living. Embracing the good and accepting the bad as stepping stones that gradually lead us where we are meant to be. Searching my soul and finding myself amidst the confusion of those around me.
Two years later, these words still speak to me. They remind me that life, and love, are not always easy. But despite it all, love still is the greatest of all things.

II

Love, what a long way, to arrive at a kiss,
what loneliness-in-motion, toward your company!
Rolling with the rain we follow the tracks alone.
In Taltal there is neither daybreak nor spring.

But you and I, love, we are together
from our clothes down to our roots:
together in the autumn, in water, in hips, until
we can be alone together -- only you, only me.

To think of the effort, that the current carried
so many stones, the delta of Boroa water;
to think that you and I, divided by trains and nations,

we had only to love one another:
with all the confusions, the men and the women,
the earth that makes carnations rise, and makes them bloom!

~Pablo Neruda - from 100 Love Sonnets~