Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other's welcome
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you have ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
Derek Walcott, Collected Poems 1948-1984, New York, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986
2 comments:
I heard this poem for the first time as it was read aloud by Jon Kabat-Zinn as part of a talk he gave in San Francisco. It says all I need to hear. I am glad to see it posted on your site. I hope to come back to your class soon. Domonic
domonic,
and i am glad that the words landed with some resonance for you! best, michael z.
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