TONIGHT I CAN WRITE | Poetry – A Soft Place To Fall

“So, I love you because the entire universe conspired to help me find you.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I don’t normally post twice in one week but seeing it’s Valentines Day tomorrow, I felt a little Poetry would go down well today.  It is yet another Pablo Neruda poem, I promise to give it a rest and feature another poet next time. BUT… I simply had to use this poem today, it being Valentines and all. Besides which, it’s my favourite.

Happy Valentines everyone. Whether you’re a Singleton or a couple, stocking up on chocolate is a must.

For your ultimate pleasure I suggest you enjoy Pablo’s beautiful words this way: Click here to open a new window and hear Tonight I can write being read by Andy Garcia (scrumdiddlyumptious voice), keep both browser windows open and follow along silently on the blog while listening to Andy’s dulcet tones recite the poem for you. Capisci?

TONIGHT I CAN WRITE

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.

Write, for example, ‘The night is shattered
and the blue stars shiver in the distance.’

The night wind revolves in the sky and sings.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.

Through nights like this one I held her in my arms.
I kissed her again and again under the endless sky.

She loved me, sometimes I loved her too.
How could one not have loved her great still eyes.

Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
To think that I do not have her. To feel that I have lost her.

To hear the immense night, still more immense without her.
And the verse falls to the soul like dew to the pasture.

What does it matter that my love could not keep her.
The night is shattered and she is not with me.

This is all. In the distance someone is singing. In the distance.
My soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

My sight searches for her as though to go to her.
My heart looks for her, and she is not with me.

The same night whitening the same trees.
We, of that time, are no longer the same.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but how I loved her.
My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing.

Another’s. She will be another’s. Like my kisses before.
Her voice, her bright body. Her infinite eyes.

I no longer love her, that’s certain, but maybe I love her.
Love is so short, forgetting is so long.

Because through nights like this one I held her in my arms
my soul is not satisfied that it has lost her.

Though this be the last pain that she makes me suffer
and these the last verses that I write for her.

– Pablo Neruda – Tonight I can write, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair

Sigh! Isn’t that just too divine for words? No-one will judge you if you listen to it again, wink-wink nudge-nudge, say no more. If anyone has a favourite poem they’d like me to feature, feel free to mention it in the comments section below.

Photography Tips & Techniques

I always shoot in manual mode and metering for exposure in these photographs was a little challenging due to the hectic foggy conditions.  My camera is always set to spot metering, I hovered the centre spot over the brightest part of the image/scene that I didn’t want overexposed or blown out.  In this case, the brightest spot was most often the fog, I then dialed in +2 on my camera’s light meter, checked my LCD screen after taking the shot and tweaked the exposure from there.

If you’ve forgotten to buy your beloved a Valentines Day pressie, don’t panic, there’s still time to buy a gift voucher for my online photography class.  Just think, you could score yourself some major brownie points! Class begins 7 March 2016.

Go be lovey-dovey,