I Decided On The Spot

THIS IS WHERE WE LIVE

I am one of those that live 

in the middle of the sea and close to the twilight 

a little beyond those stones. 

When I came 

and saw what was happening 

I decided on the spot. 

The day had spread itself 

and everything was light 

and the sea was beating 

like a salty lion, 

many-handed. 

All that deserted space was singing 

and I, lost and awed, 

looking toward the silence, 

opened my mouth and said: 

"Mother of the foam, 

expansive solitude, 

here I will begin my own rejoicing, 

my particular poetry." 

From then on I was never 

let down by a single wave. 

I always found the flavour of the sky 

in the water, in the earth, 

and the wood and the sea burned together 

through the lonely winters. 

I am grateful to the earth 

for having waited 

for me 

when sky and sea came together 

like two lips touching; 

for that's no small thing, no? - 

to have lived 

through one solitude to arrive at another, 

to feel oneself many things and recover wholeness. 

I love all the things there are, 

and of all fires 

love is the only inexhaustible one; 

and that's why I go from life to life, 

from guitar to guitar, 

and I have no fear 

of light or of shade 

and almost being earth myself, 

I spoon away at infinity. 

So no one can ever fail 

to find my doorless numberless house - 

there between dark stones, 

facing the flash 

of the violent salt, 

there we live, my woman and I, 

there we take root, 

Grant us help then. 

Help us to be more of the earth each day! 

Help us to be 

more the sacred foam, 

more the swish of the wave!

~ Pablo Neruda