Poet Pablo Neruda’s Stones of the Sky (1970) is a series of introspective reflections on mortality and the eternal inspired by the nature of gems, minerals, and stones. I am also an avid gem lover, and I feel his poems resonate deeply with me. These lines are from the poem XIX found in the book:
The stone was there before the wind,
before the man, before the dawn:
its first movement
was the first music of the river.
Pablo Neruda
Delightful by Nature 