I just came across this poem (thank you KH…). It is one of those gems that must be shared.
Moving and beautiful, some consider that it is about unconditional love.
For me, it speaks of forgiving, accepting and welcoming one’s self — learning to love it, and to treat it, and life, gratefully and kindly…
Love After Love
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your 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
Lovely poem. I’d never come across it before.
Isn’t it just Jane? This will be my life’s theme from now on!