Rare snow loon

Rare snow loon, originally uploaded by ssaito.

Poetry

Poetry

I didn't know what to say,
my mouth could not speak
my eyes could not see.

And something ignited in my soul,
fever or unremembered wings?
And I went my own way deciphering
that burning fire.

And I wrote the first bare line
pure foolishness, pure wisdom
bare, without substance
pure foolishness, pure wisdom
of one who knows nothing.

And suddenly,
I saw the heavens unfastened and open!

-Pablo Neruda

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