Visiting Pablo Neruda’s Houses

By Ruth Kozak

Excerpt from Pablo Neruda “Poet’s Obligation”
So through me, freedom and the sea
will make their answer to the shuttered heart.
I learned about Pablo Neruda from a Chilean friend who gave me books of Neruda’s poetry. I never dreamt that one day I would visit his houses in Chile. My friend, exiled from his homeland after the military junta, always longed to return, but passed away from cancer before he could. It was I who would go to Chile to explore the poet’s familiar haunts and houses.

Born in 1904 in Parral, Chile, Neruda’s real name was Neflato Ricardo Reyes Basoalto...