Sunday, March 30, 2008

Arriving at Your Own Door


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 yourself.

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 Walcot

Just heard the above poem on Oprah's soul series on XM radio. Not sure I have the spacing correct. Oh Google, I love you so.


**and Oprah.
***and Picasso.



17 comments:

Poopsie said...

Thank you for sharing. I find your blog to be an inspiration and look forward to coming back often.
Cindy P :)

Michelle O'Neil said...

Thanks Poopsie!

Poopsie, Poopsie, Poopsie! Anyone who calls themselves Poopsie is a friend of mine!

Carrie Wilson Link said...

Mine too.

Great poem.

Kathryn said...

Loved this. Thanks. It's very Rumi-like.

Seeker said...

Wow! A beautiful reminder for today! Thank you. I am printing this for my office.

Reminds me of the T.S. Eliot poem that ends with:

...We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot

Dianne said...

thanks for posting that. It touched me in exactly the way I needed it to.

riversgrace said...

This is one of my favorite poems, so glad you found it.

Amber said...

I love this poem. I think she had it in her magazine once, because I copied it down from somewhere. I gav eit to my mom.

So full of hope. That is what I love about it.

:)

Jerri said...

So full of soul, Michelle. You are so full of soul.

Terry Whitaker said...

Thank you Michelle. Every little bit you offer helps.

John Ettorre said...

Powerful stuff.

Kim Stagliano said...

Why is this so easy to read? To understand. And yet so difficult to do? Thanks, Michelle.

Stacy said...

Me too. This is soooo beyond perfect, if such a thing exists. Thank you for sharing it.

Raven said...

What a beautiful poem. Thank you for sharing it.

thepoetryman said...

I'll agree with poopsie. Inspirational indeed!

Jack K. said...

When you have a loving soul that serves with integrity, it is easy to love.

Thank you for showing us the way.

Laticia said...

Oprah's 4 interviews with Jill Bolte Taylor were the first that Oprah did after Eckhart Tolle and they take everything Tolle talks about to another level. Oprah's copy of Jill's book, MY STROKE OF INSIGHT, was dog-eared and all marked up and kept reading from it the way she read from A New Earth and recommended it highly.

Oprah's recommendation was enough for me. I read My Stroke of Insight and I loved it too. This story is as inspiring as The Last Lecture or Tuesdays with Morrie - and even better, it has a Happy Ending!

I bought the book on Amazon because they have it for 40% off retail and they also had an amazing interview with Dr Taylor that I haven't seen anywhere else - Here is the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/My-Stroke-Insight-Scientists-Personal/dp/0670020745/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211471755&sr=1-2