Preparing For the Journey
“Your soul knows better than I what you need to do.”
To deeply engage with Derek Walcott’s “Love After Love” (page 86, chapter 5), I encouraged you to write the poem by hand. This deliberate action slows your reading, allowing for deeper reflection and personal connection with the words.
Love After Love
by Derek Walcott
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.
The phrase “who knows you by heart” has two meanings: memorization and deep, intuitive understanding. It’s knowing something is true from your soul.
The poem’s suggestion to “take down old love letters” and “peel your own image from the mirror” might initially seem like letting go. However, it could also mean acknowledging and appreciating your past.
Instead of discarding these memories, the poem may encourage reflection and celebration of them in the present moment.
“Sit. Feast on your life.” This affirms the value of experiencing and enjoying your current reality, while honoring the past.
NEXT STEP: Assignment #6
Kind Living 