"I Do Not Love You Except..."

As I mentioned a few blogs ago, I'm presenting poetry to my Freshman class this quarter and have been coming across some amazing poems that I had never heard or seen before. I've never been much of a poetry fan, so for me to enjoy a poem enough to want post it, it has got to be pretty amazing.  Here's a poem I came across today when I was looking for love poems to present to my students.  This is pretty self explanatory:

                                             I Do Not Love You Except Because I Love You

          I do not love you except because I love you;
          I go from loving to not loving you,
          From waiting to not waiting for you
          My heart moves from cold to fire.

         I love you only because it's you the one I love;
         I hate you deeply, and hating you
         Bend to you, and the measure of my changing love for you
         Is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

         Maybe January light will consume
         My heart with its cruel
         Ray, stealing my key to true calm.

         In this part of the story I am the one who
         Dies, the only one, and I will die of love because I love you,
         Because I love you, Love, in fire and blood.

                         -- Pablo Neruda
                            Chilean poet, diplomat and politician (1904-1973)

Um... Wow!  That's all I can say.  Wow!  Just such a powerful and emotional poem that strikes at the heart of anyone who has been in this particularly situation! Just amazing!