Often other people’s words resonate so loudly with me that I’m left with that slightly breathless feeling you get if you’re standing too near to a bass amp, or a big surdo drum. Bumph! Right in the solar plexus. Do you know what I mean? It’s physical and emotional all at once.
Last night, I was ‘got’ like that when I picked up ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ to reread, having seen the film a couple of weeks ago. I found something I’d failed to spot last time. This poem by Derek Walcott.
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.
I read it and reread it, seeing something new each time. The central message for me, and it may be so different for you, is about recognising, loving and embracing our selves.
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Jan, yes, I know exactly what you mean, and I have that feeling as I read this poem, and, more than that, your words.
Thank you.
Joanna Young´s last blog ..Stop Apologising (for the things you’ve never done)
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