"I take the word and move through it, as if it were only a human form, its lines delight me and I..."

“I take the word and move

through it, as if it were

only a human form,

its lines delight me and I sail

in each resonance of language:

I utter and I am

and across the boundary of words,

without speaking, I approach silence.”



- Pablo Neruda, from “The Word,” in Full Woman, Fleshly Apple, Hot Moon: Selected Poems, transl. Stephen Mitchell (HarperFlamingo, 1998)