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| Viewing Jackson Pollack at the MOMA, New York |
Love After Love
Derek Walcott
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.
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.
Bento Box:
The Hon. Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC (born January 23, 1930) is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros. Robert Graves wrote that Walcott "handles English with a closer understanding of its inner magic than most, if not any, of his contemporaries”.
Thanks T for sending this poem.
i have to say, derek walcott is one of my favorite poets ever, as i posted here.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teacupmoments.com/2011/04/celebrating-poetry.html
i like that photo, btw. oh, nyc. a feast for the senses. we'll be visiting again this coming month. hope to drop by the moma. :)
Yup, NYC is a feast for everything. Have fun and don't forget to post.
ReplyDelete