When one of my closest friends went through a horrible break-up five years ago, I gave her this poem by Derek Wolcott, which I'd since forgotten about. She stumbled across it last week and mentioned it to me this morning. Reading it reminds me of two things: 1) God, am I glad our 20s are over, and 2) the imagery of nourishing oneself back to wholeness with food and wine after heartbreak would certainly resonate my Italian aunties and mom. No wonder I love it.
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.
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