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Neruda, Pablo - If you were to come into being suddenly
Identifier
000637
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Selected Poems – Pablo Neruda
If you were to come into being suddenly, on some sad coast,
surrounded by the stuff of the dead day,
face to face with a new night,
full of waves,
and were to blow on my cold, fearful heart,
on its lonesome blood,
on its flames like a flight of doves,
its black blood syllables would sound,
its unquenchable red waters swell,
and it would sound and sound in the shadows,
it would sound like death itself,
calling like a pipe full of wind and crying,
or a bottle gushing fright.
So it is, and lightning would glaze your tresses
and rain would come in through your open eyes
to hatch the cry you have incubated here
and the black wings of the sea would whirl round you
with a great flail of talons and raven cawings