“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.†~ Pablo Neruda
Oh, Neruda; he managed to put into words things, sensations and experiences that seem so hard to describe in words, but feel so powerfully alive.
I don’t know what this gorgeous line from this master of poetry brings to mind for you, but for me, when I first read it I instantly thought of the way we humans try so hard to not be our fully fragrant selves.
And yet, even when we deny our erotic nature, the ebb and flow of the rhythms of life that flow through the marrow of our bones and the blood in our veins, this erotic nature, this life bubbling with life, still pulses within us.
We can try to get rid of the ‘evidence’ of our earthly beauty, our ripeness, our sensuality.
We can try to hide those parts of ourselves that we believe are too much, too generous, too bright and loud, too earthy and gritty, in short, too beautiful to present to the world…but Neruda knows and reminds us that spring will always come, again.
And spring has its way. It comes out of the dead of winter, when much has died away.
Now as we go deeper into the dark months, deeper into fall, then winter, it’s a good time to open to those parts we’ve hidden away, feed them, warm them by the fire, nourish and nurture them, so when spring comes, spring can do what it does.
Spring just does what it does, and sometimes, like Spring, we do what we do, when we don’t talk ourselves out of our earthy, juicy, blossoming selves. We remember what we long to do, we remember that we long for life to do to us, “what spring does with the cherry trees.â€
image courtesy of Crunchy Footprints on Flickr, under CC 2.0
I enjoyed your writing in this post. I personally find winter to be a time of deep inner creativity. You choose different words of expression for much the same thing, which is refreshing, thank you!
oh darlin, in the magic i’ve come to expect from you, you’ve taken my breath away with the combination of the image and neurda . . . then you’ve tied it all up with a bow of your words that break me open, turn me around, and let me feel and anticipate the power of the dark months, never forgetting that spring will come again in all its colorful glory.
yes, these winter months are the perfect time to empty the closets, pull the boxes down from the highest shelves, shake our beautiful, sensuous selves out and be prepared to kiss the earth, kiss our selves, and bloom to our hearts’ content. tis a lovely way to go to sleep . . . but first i have another post or two to read here;) xo
Hi,
Absolutely loved your post especially the part about where we try to hide our most beautiful parts but the spring always comes. Felt it deep in my heart, great post!
-Keerti
How I love Neruda, too. I have asked one of my (native) Spanish speaking friends to read his words aloud for me so I can feel washed with his passion-language-making.
And yours… yes. YOURS!
Splendid. Thank you, thank you, for writing these exact words.