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 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
Since beginning Inner Excavation and NOW YOU, I have been thinking about what version of myself I project into the world around me. I think it’s different dependent on where I am or who I’m with. Who is my true self? Do I even take the time to know her?
Sweet Darkness
When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.
When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.
Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.
There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.
The dark will be your womb
tonight.
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.
Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.
Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness
to learn
anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive
is too small for you.
~ David Whyte
Don’t you just love that last bit?
Happy Monday, friends! Make it a good one.
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What gorgeous poetry…yes, there are moments in life when we seem to lose ourselves. What a beautiful and thoughtful post, with lovely images to go with it!
feast on your life…..oh!
throwing my arms around you
inside my heart
….big grateful hug
for this nourishing share:)
sitting and feasting,
Jennifer
ah, this is the journey – to find your true self. it’s so worth it. 🙂
I love your choice of poetry! thanks for sharing them. I don’t always have time to visit, but I am glad I took that time today, thanks.
Love the last few lines of the sweet darkness poem. Thanks so much for sharing Naomi!