Be Drunk

''You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the 

only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks 

your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually 

drunk.

But on what?Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be 

drunk.

And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of 

a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again, 

drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave, 

the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything 

that is groaning, everything that is rolling, everything that is 

singing, everything that is speaking. . .ask what time it is and 

wind, wave, star, bird, clock will answer you:"It is time to be 

drunk! So as not to be the martyred slaves of time, be drunk, be

continually drunk! On wine, on poetry or on virtue as you wish." 

Charles Baudelaire

Clenched Soul

We have lost even this twilight.

No one saw us this evening hand in hand

while the blue night dropped on the world.

I have seen from my window

the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun

burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched

in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?

Who else was there?

Saying what?

Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly

when I am sad and feel you are far away?

The book fell that always closed at twilight

and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.

Always, always you recede through the evenings

toward the twilight erasing statues. 

Pablo Neruda

Love Me for Love's Sake

Sonnet XIV

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Except for love's sake only. Do not say

"I love her for her smile--her look--her way

Of speaking gently,--for a trick of thought

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day" -

For these things in themselves, Beloved, may

Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought,

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry, -

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

But love me for love's sake, that evermore

Thou may'st love on, through love's eternity. 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Between the Shadow and the Soul

I do not love you as if you were 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 XVII by Pablo Neruda

Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice. 

Robert Frost

Sonnet 43

 I just found this girl on youtube- +Pearls Of Wisdom - and I'm so grateful for all her videos. She'll be a lot on my blog from now, no doubt!
 A few days ago I shared with you How do I love thee by Elizabeth Barret Browning. Now, here's the poem read by a sweet voice that gives the delicacy and vulnerability own this confession of love. Because for me, Elizabeth doesn't declare her love, she confesses her love.

Human: the only animal capable of self-pity

''I never saw a wild thing

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself.''

Self-Pity by D.H. Lawrence