the queen

The Queen

I have named you queen.
There are taller ones than you, taller.
There are purer ones than you, purer.
There are lovelier than you, lovelier.

But you are the queen.

When you go through the streets
no one recognizes you.
No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks
at the carpet of red gold
that you tread as you pass,
the nonexistent carpet.

And when you appear
all the rivers sound
in my body, bells
shake the sky,
and a hymn fills the world.

Only you and I,
only you and I, my love,
listen to it.
-Pablo Neruda


I have been knee deep in poetry the past few weeks. I forgot how much I love poems. I read, wrote and analyzed them like a fiend in college. I passed up a couple opportunities to get my MFA in poetry writing years ago. And I haven't written a poem - a real poem that I would ever want to show a soul - in about seven years.

The blog is such a safe medium for writing. There is no critic, no one picking apart tone and word choice. But teaching poetry to young kids has really connected me with what a marvelous, freeing medium it is.

Last week under the superb guidance of Susanna Sonnenberg, we did an exercise with Pablo Neruda's "The Queen." The poem was up on the board and the kids read it. We then talked about what it would feel like to have something so marvelous written about you. The stanza about, "all the rivers sound in my body" really gets me. And it really is how I feel when I see my girl. I told the students how I want to run to the door when I go pick her up after a long day of work and while I run to greet her and think about seeing her sweet smile, "bells shake the sky."

The kids were then asked to write a response poem to someone they really love. I was too wimpy to do the exercise with them. I can't even imagine being able to write something that beautiful to Eliana. But the response of my students were brilliant. The poem posted here was written by one of my second graders. It just happened to be her mama's birthday the next day, so she gave the poem to her mom as a present. I can only hope to get something that beautiful from my little queen one day.

I Love You the Purplest

I have named you purple
from the deepest seas to the top of a
mountain.
You may not be the one
whose hair glimmers in cool night sky
when the moon is up and glistening
NO! You may not be the
one whose voice is as soft as
the wind
blowing over the tree
tops
but as harsh as a leopard's growl
but you are someone
special
you may not
be all these things
because you mean even more than
that
you may not be what beauty's worth
but to me you are 10,000 times that
you are
the sunshine, you are
the moonlight, you are more
than any other thing could be.