For You

Trawling through old drafts I found this, dated 04 January 2007.

So much has happened since. So much has changed, and yet, some things never will.

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I don't love you as if you were the salt-rose, topaz
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as certain dark things are loved,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
hidden within itself the light of those flowers,
and thanks to your love, darkly in my body
lives the dense fragrance that rises from the earth.

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

but this, in which there is no I or you,
so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand,
so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close.

~Pablo Neruda~
Sonnet XVII, 1960