"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, Collected Poems, 1948-1984

 

 

"The Guest House"

 

This being human is a guest house.

Every morning a new arrival.

 

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

 

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

 

still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out

for some new delight.

 

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

 

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

 

Rumi, Translation by Coleman Barks

 

 

"Allow"

 

There is no controlling life.

Try corralling a lightning bolt, containing a tornado.

Dam a stream and it will create a new channel.

Resist, and the tide will sweep you off your feet.

Allow, and grace will carry you to higher ground.

The only safety lies in letting it all in – the wild and the weak; fear, fantasies, failures and success.

When loss rips off the doors of the heart,

or sadness veils your vision with despair,

practice becomes simply bearing the truth.

In the choice to let go of your known way of being,

the whole world is revealed to your new eyes.

 

Danna Faulds

 

 

"Autobiography in Five Short Chapters"

 

I.

I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in.

I am lost ... I am helpless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes me forever to find a way out.

 

II.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it.

I fall in again.

I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

 

III.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there.

I still fall in ... it's a habit, my eyes are open I know where I am.

It is my fault.

I get out immediately.

 

IV.

I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

 

V.

I walk down another street.

 

 

Portia Nelson