Love After Love


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 yourself.
Give wine. Give bread.
Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you all your life,
whom you 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 ~

Comments

Anonymous said…
"give back your heart to yourself" this is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing such meaningful prose. It is amazing, as I grow older I realize that I am getting comfortable in my own skin - praise the Lord for that :)

blessings,

mari
R. Aastrup said…
Hi Patty--

What a beautiful poem! Just beautiful! I will have to remember it for when I teach Walcott =)
Victoria (Vii) said…
What a lovely poem! Thank you for sharing it!

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