Selected Poems

Pablo Neruda remains the master of the understated employing the most subtle linguistic flourish and layers of meaning even while he is eviscerating critics and expressing no desire to write for their pleasure. This is Neruda, the straight shooter with a crooked eye. The witty raconteur who leaves his audience ever slightly unsure if they are standing on the outside of some inside joke. The consummate sage who maintains a peculiar complexity being still simple enough to contemplate twice before forming an opinion without feeling foolish. Each poem is a self contained anecdote enlisting object, emotion or location to convey a story beneath a story.