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
4 comments:
One of my favorites that I had forgotten. Thank you for the words I needed to hear today...
I'm not sure how I feel about this poem or it's meaning. What does it mean for you or anyone reading here...
Christina, I think this poem is about accepting ourselves as we are, about forgiving ourselves and cherishing our true essence.
I believe that also but I think the main essence behind the poem is allowing oneself to do these things after the heartbreak of a relationship breakdown..which can be so very devastating. I guess I took the poem's meaning as literal and after reading a lot of the poem's analysis that seems to be what it is really about. That's why it seemed quite sad to me when I first read it. Beautiful poem.
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