13 February, 2017

MONDAY TRAVELS: ODE TO AGE by Pablo Neruda



Happy Monday friends! I hope you packed light and got some party clothes, cause this Monday we are in the making a stop in a wonderful Chile, so take out your sun lotion and sun glasses and let's go explore Latin America!

So today we are in Chile and we will explore:

ODE TO AGE BY PABLO NERUDA




Let's get to know Pablo Neruda:
Pablo Neruda  (born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto, July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was a poet and a diplomat. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 10 years old. He wrote in a variety of styles, including surrealist poems, historical epics, overtly political manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love poems. During his lifetime, Neruda occupied many diplomatic positions and served a term as a Senator for the Chilean Communist Party. He later went into exile with his wife as the president threatened to arrest him. In his lifetime he received Nobel Prizes for both Peace and Literature.



Poem:

I don't believe in age.
All old people
carry
in their eyes,
a child,
and children,
at times
observe us with the
eyes of wise ancients.
Shall we measure
life
in meters or kilometers
or months?
How far since you were born?
How long
must you wander
until
like all men
instead of walking on its surface
we rest below the earth?
To the man, to the woman
who utilized their
energies, goodness, strength,
anger, love, tenderness,
to those who truly
alive
flowered,
and in their sensuality matured,
let us not apply
the measure
of a time
that may be
something else, a mineral
mantle, a solar
bird, a flower,
something, maybe,
but not a measure.
Time, metal
or bird, long
petiolate flower,
stretch
through
man's life,
shower him
with blossoms
and with
bright
water
or with hidden sun.
I proclaim you
road,
not shroud,
a pristine
ladder
with treads
of air,
a suit lovingly
renewed
through springtimes
around the world.
Now,
time, I roll you up,
I deposit you in my
bait box
and I am off to fish
with your long line
the fishes of the dawn!


Thoughts:

I agree, I also DO NOT believe in age. Even though I was not fortunate enough to see my grandparents grow old, I have seen so many wonderful elderly people who finally after seeing their kids and their grandkids grow up, have a chance to travel, to try out so many wonderful things.

Not just elderly people, I don't even think how I would consider age an issue. I always thought that I never identify with my own age. I sometimes find myself feeling way older, because of the books, I enjoy, or the depth I like to to just jump into to and explore certain things. Other times, I feel much much younger than I am, because of the dreams I have or hopes.

I mean, who how old you are. It's whats inside you, inside your mind and hear that matters. So don't let anyone get you down if they call you too old for something.

You are never too old, for anything :)


See you next Monday!