Saturday, September 6, 2008

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



Derek Walcott, born in 1930 in Saint Lucia, won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1992. He has written more than 20 poetry collections and more than 20 plays.

1 comment:

L'Tanya said...

I have had this taped up on my computer for the past few months. There are times when it almost brings me to tears.