Love After Love, by 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.
i love this poem
Comment by bob — April 26, 2007 @ 6:38 am
this really does explore his real feelings and i truely belive that they are true due to similar experiences
Comment by Chris — May 31, 2007 @ 7:52 am
I found this poem really interesting as it created a happy mood and was a really heart warming poem which sends a strong message across which shows identity and discovering your true self that you love.
Comment by Neelam Shah — September 26, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
the poem is rabish
Comment by ahmed — November 18, 2007 @ 9:56 am
i loooveee this poem with all my heart!!
Comment by james anderson — November 19, 2007 @ 6:45 am
this poem is complicated because we have to do it for english x
Comment by alj — March 28, 2008 @ 6:55 am
This poem can better be understood if you have lived a fairly long life, and struggled, and felt pain and have tried and tried and tried to make sense of your life, only to find at the end that none of your striving really meant very much and the answer was always there inside you.
Comment by Alex — July 15, 2008 @ 7:55 pm
this poem stirs me to reconnect with myself and with the me who is at the very depths of my own soul-a return to a time when I truley loved and celebrated myself and all that is me-to truley feel alive and whole again
Comment by brenda — January 10, 2009 @ 5:18 pm