god I hate corn

I've had a strong dislike of cornfields for the past four years. Before, I was mostly indifferent to cornfields, whenever I drove past any cornfields I would always just ignore them. To me, the cornfields of Illinois always looked kind of ugly, especially when compared to the ocean or to the mountains. But lately, I think my relationship with corn has grown a bit more complex. I may joke about cornfields being ugly, but I've always associated the thought of my hometown with corn. I associated corn with central Illinois, so I suspect that in 20 years the thought of corn might make me feels a little nostalgic. So I think I'll leave Ode to Maize by Pablo Neruda in my time capsule (https://www.poemhunter.com/poems/ode/page-1/29283/). Although my experience with corn may be different than Neruda's, I can still appreciate and relate to his appreciation for maize.

"Then the husks parted
and fruitfulness burst its veils
of pale papyrus
that grains of laughter
might fall upon the earth."

This was one of my favorite stanzas in Neruda's poem because of how vividly descriptive it was. I just like how Neruda makes corn feel so joyful.

"Oh, to bite into
the steaming ear beside the sea
of distant song and deepest waltz.
To boil you
As your aroma
spreads through
blue sierras."

I'll admit that while I find cornfields a little ugly I really like eating corn. In that respect, I thought that the above stanza from Neruda's poem conjured up a lot of childhood memories for me. I can clearly remember the feeling of biting a still steaming ear of waxy corn my mother just made, or the smell of corn cooking, or the experience of eating sweet corn at Urbana's annual sweet corn festival.

So while my experience with corn isn't exactly the same as Neruda's, (It's awfully hard to "bite into the steaming ear beside the sea" when you live in landlocked Illinois) I think this poem would still instill a sense of nostalgia in me for Central Illinois and my youth.