Exhale

we begin to coalesce

from moonlit shadows
a cool breeze bears
a touch of heat

I inhale
your exhale

My thanks to Ai Li for including this piece in The Cherita: The Stone, published September 2025.

This cherita was inspired by a very favorite poem of mine, one by Pablo Neruda titled Sonnet XVII:

Sonnet XVII

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Published in 1959, Neruda’s Sonnet XVII is a poem laced with metaphor and imagery, going beyond the superficial to focus on the deep, organic and often mysterious nature of love. The mastery of Neruda’s poem concludes with two lines that transcend space and time, connecting two people in love in one of the most profound ways I’ve ever read in poetry. I could only hope to capture some of Neruda’s magic with my similarly styled cherita.