Derek Wolcott

today....

and yesterday

The poet Derek Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87. He is regarded as one of the greatest poets in the English language. In 1992, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. Walcott was a playwright and a painter. He died at his home on the island of St. Lucia, a place that figured prominently in his work. It's where he published his first poem in a local newspaper at the tender age of 14. 

I'm not sure I totally agree with the sentiment but the poetry is lovely...

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.