On Self-Remembering
This is the first in a series of posts about self-remembering and self-recognition. The work of George Gurdjieff, A. H. Almaas (Hameed Ali) and Faisal Muqaddam, among others, will be explored. But first a poem by Derek Walcott that speaks so beautifully to the subject.
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 1948-2013, p.227 (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux 2014). For more on Walcott, winner of the 1992 Nobel prize for literature, see this wikipedia article.
With gratitude to Miriam Iosupovici for sharing this wonderful poem with friends, and to Martin Sproul for permission to use his photo.
July 21, 2017 @ 6:51 pm
So beautiful, and just on time.
Thank you.
July 22, 2017 @ 4:04 pm
Most welcome Mary. Thanks so much for connecting…
October 20, 2015 @ 9:34 am
Hi Elizabeth, what a wonderful poem. I love the opening image: ‘greet yourself arriving /at your own door’ So much beauty in that.
October 20, 2015 @ 9:40 am
Yes, so lovely it is. Thanks for your feedback.
May 17, 2015 @ 9:22 pm
Elizabeth –
Thank you for your beautiful post. I’ve enjoyed your comments on DA and attachment. We have many areas of common interest: Diamond Approach, my doctoral dissertation 25 years ago was on attachment and SE -I’ve only got one more module to go! I keep thinking our paths will cross. Are you going to Asilomar? It would be nice to actually meet!
Warmly,
Anne
May 19, 2015 @ 10:04 am
Thank you Anne, for connecting and your comments. And your work. Very exciting that you will be an SEP very soon. I would definitely like us to meet. Let’s private mail about that. Warmly, Elizabeth
May 16, 2015 @ 1:01 pm
Beautiful poem! How long it takes us and how treacherous can be the course – but re-turn we always do to the love that never left us.
May 16, 2015 @ 1:04 pm
Ah Barb. What a beautiful way to articulate this. Thank you.