Love after Love

I came across this poem in an interestingly random way and it immediately struck a chord with me.

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

I found this on the blog of Neri Karra, who is a designer, fashion consultant, academic and Cambridge PhD and describes it as her favourite poem. I met Neri at an alumni drinks event in the Bleu bar of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Istanbul this week. So, coming across this wonderful poem was rather a charming discovery, through an unexpected chain of events. Neri’s website is here.