So Is My Life by Pablo Neruda — Read

My duty moves along with my song:

I am I am not: that is my destiny.

I exist not if I do not attend to the pain of those who suffer: they are my pains.

For I cannot be without existing for all, for all who are silent and oppressed,

I come from the people and I sing for them: my poetry is song and punishment.

I am told: you belong to darkness.

Perhaps, perhaps, but I walk toward the light.

I am the man of bread and fish and you will not find me among books, but with women and men: they have taught me the infinite.