Pablo Neruda: “Only with Kisses and Red Poppies Can I Love You”

Photographer Unknown, (We Have Red Poppies and More…)

“Only with kisses and red poppies can I love you,
with rain-soaked wreaths,
contemplating ashen horses and yellow dogs.
Only with waves at my back can I love you,
between dull explosions of brimstone and reflective waters,
swimming against cemeteries that circulate in certain rivers,
drowned pasture flooding the sad, chalky tombstones,
swimming across submerged hearts
and faded lists of unburied children.”

—Pablo Neruda, The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems

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