Isla Negra, Chile
To stand in Pablo Neruda's bedroom here is to understand just why creativity so often needs that special place. Great artists will tell you of that singular location in their homes or studios where the light is just right and from which their creative energies can truly flow. The inspiration that is Neruda's bedroom starts with a wonderful panorama of the Pacific Ocean.
Neruda's design for the room borrowed from the mystical traditions of the Mapuche, Chile's native people. He positioned the bed so that the sunrise appeared through a window above his head and then traversed the bedroom until its dramatic setting over the Pacific.
The poet David Whyte celebrates Neruda's "ability to treat life as a mystery to be lived rather than a problem to be solved." (The Heart Aroused, p. 98) Indeed, Neruda's playful creativity is evident throughout his home. As we learn in Chile that true creativity is in the not knowing, in the childlike exploration of wonderment, Neruda's "La Poesia" rings true.
I didn't know what to say, my mouth
could not speak,
my eyes could not see
and something ignited in my soul,
fever or unremembered wings
and I went my own way,
deciphering that burning fire
and I wrote the first bare line,
bare, without substance, pure
foolishness,
pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened and open.
To stand in Pablo Neruda's bedroom here is to understand just why creativity so often needs that special place. Great artists will tell you of that singular location in their homes or studios where the light is just right and from which their creative energies can truly flow. The inspiration that is Neruda's bedroom starts with a wonderful panorama of the Pacific Ocean.
Neruda's design for the room borrowed from the mystical traditions of the Mapuche, Chile's native people. He positioned the bed so that the sunrise appeared through a window above his head and then traversed the bedroom until its dramatic setting over the Pacific.
The poet David Whyte celebrates Neruda's "ability to treat life as a mystery to be lived rather than a problem to be solved." (The Heart Aroused, p. 98) Indeed, Neruda's playful creativity is evident throughout his home. As we learn in Chile that true creativity is in the not knowing, in the childlike exploration of wonderment, Neruda's "La Poesia" rings true.
I didn't know what to say, my mouth
could not speak,
my eyes could not see
and something ignited in my soul,
fever or unremembered wings
and I went my own way,
deciphering that burning fire
and I wrote the first bare line,
bare, without substance, pure
foolishness,
pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing
and suddenly I saw
the heavens
unfastened and open.