today at work whilst serving on tills, i was talking with a customer who had just graduated university with a literature degree, and was telling her that i was thinking of ideas to put into a "giftbox" for a certain friend for christmas, and whilst explaining one aspect of it, she wrote down two authors for me to look into: pablo neruda, and erick manela, which was incredibly kind of her.
i won't lie, i hadn't heard of either author before she wrote them down so this made me even more excited to be able to check out more unknown literature. after food shopping when my shift was over, i unpacked my bags as quickly as i could and jumped on google to do some research, and my - what finds! neruda's poetry is just as good as the girl stated, but unfortunately i wasn't able to find the other guy. perhaps she wrote his name down wrong? or am i being dumb? a combination of both? who knows. but for now, i leave you with a poem from neruda, called "perhaps not to be, is to be without your being"

Perhaps not to be is to be without your being, without your going, that cuts noon light like a blue flower, without your passing later through fog and stones, without the torch you lift in your hand that others may not see as golden, that perhaps no one believed blossomed the glowing origin of the rose, without, in the end, your being, your coming suddenly, inspiringly, to know my life, blaze of the rose-tree, wheat of the breeze: and it follows that I am, because you are: it follows from ‘you are’, that I am, and we: and, because of love, you will, I will, We will, come to be.