70 Favorite Poems: 67. Love After Love by Derek Walcott
[I found this in a novel called The Time Traveler's Wife written by Audrey Niffenegger. The novel itself is really...wonderful. You should read that too.]
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.
Haha, you’re awesome. I’ve been slowly making my way through your list of poems. I had to comment on this one; I love The Time Traveler’s Wife. It’s one of my favorite books.
24 October 2008 at 7:54 am