Pablo Neruda Poetry

Pablo Neruda is a Latin American poet and writer. Some of his writings involve love and intimacy while others can be described as depressing and astonishing. I consider him a very creative writer, even though all the poems I read for my class tomorrow are all sad. "Tonight I Can Write..." is a poem of his lost love. The reader can notice how passionate his love was for this woman by the way he writes about her. "I no longer lover her, that's certain, but how I loved her. My voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing" (23-24). In the beginning of the poem he describes how he misses her and how he used to hold her, but towards the end he describes that his love was so great for her that he can no longer bear it and must forget her and move on. I found a quote that I thought was interesting that describes his thoughts on love as well...


"I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where. I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I do not know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep your eyes close." 
— Pablo Neruda (100 Love Sonnets: Cien sonetos de amor) http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/4026.Pablo_Neruda

Neruda's writing is very beautiful because he can very intimate and simple at the same time. I can understand exactly what he is trying to portray... that his love is so powerful and that there are no words to describe how he feels about someone. 

But now I am curious about what made him write this poem. Did he have a lost love? Because I wonder how someone could write such a powerful poem if he had never experienced anything like this before?