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Love after Love
By gartenfische | May 16, 2008
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 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
Topics: poetry |
May 16th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Like coming home…..to yourself
May 16th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I love that poem!!!
Wait, I think I posted it on my blog once! Of course I love it!!
May 16th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
it’s feels like something from rumi.
but so true. so often we seek validation from others, so much so that we forget to take care of our own hearts.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:58 am
THIS IS SO WEIRD, GF!
I read that poem to my class last sunday for mother’s day after a friend read the same poem to me for my birthday last saturday!
WEIRD!
May 17th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Thank you for introducing me to this poem. It is a feast!
May 17th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
“Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life” …
Oh man, that made my eyes tear up. Beautiful. Thanks for posting this. You have exquisite taste.
May 18th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Oh my- I love this poem. I have not ever read or seen it before.
How I thank you!
May 19th, 2008 at 5:23 am
This is beautiful. Simply beautiful. Thank you for posting this. I too teared up reading it.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pm
How beautiful. I’ve heard of Derek Wolcott but I didn’t know that poem. Thank you for posting it. (This is my first visit. I came by way of Fran’s, I think.)
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:59 am
How lovely to come home to all of your sweet comments.
Linda, wow, that IS weird. I wasn’t planning on posting again before we left, but I read that poem and thought, I have to put this one up.
Welcome, Ruth—thanks for visiting and leaving a comment! I hope you’ll be back. :)
May 23rd, 2008 at 8:29 pm
you will love again the stranger who was yourself… oh boy, did I need to hear that.
just when I thought “my life” was nothing to feast on.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:31 am
Dearest GF…your words and images, both photographic and mental, have touched my heart and soul. You are so gifted in so many ways…it is quite obvious. My writing “soul” has been very dry and barren lately. There are times I feel like giving up writing altogether but when I come to the “well” of your blog, my thirst is quenched and my writing and human spirit are renewed.
Most certainly, I must come back so very often; I never wish to be “parched” again.
Blessings to you and yours,
Catherine+
June 8th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Dear Catherine. You always leave the most beautiful comments. Thank you so very, very much. What a lovely (and loving!) soul you are. Blessings!