The Stranger Who Has Loved You

We continue National Poetry Month and the theme of compassionate experience with some picks from Derek Walcott and the Sufi sage Hafiz. It must be said that the Derek Walcott pick does have some bias being that he is a celebrated native son of St. Lucia. His notoriety goes beyond the accomplishment of Nobel Poet Laureate. Just recite these opening lines in the vicinity of any St. Lucian “After the hot gospeller had leveled all but the churched sky, I wrote the tale by tallow…” The tell-tale glint of recognition you will see flitting across that face speaks also of an indelible memory of the historic tragedy in the capital of St. Lucia marked by the popular sonnet, A City’s Death by Fire. He was our Poet Laureate long before the Nobel.

Given the massive, ominous cloud of volcanic ash over the Icelandic sky it would seem in poor taste to feature that automatic choice, instead here’s a tribute to springtime and renewal.

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.

What are you thinking? How is this about springtime, or renewal? Love After Love seems to speak of recovery after hurt, heartbreak. It can be that on one level, but read deeper and you will discover its secret of a soul’s awakening, and compassionate experience. Arriving at your own doors says you are home, a place of belonging, and acceptance. At peace with yourself, you no longer seek happiness through, nor do battle with, the reflection of your soul in the world, but greet the other with the smile of recognition. And recognizing yourself in that reflection you arrive at the ability for compassion, not just tolerance, and true meaning of the Golden Rule: love.

Poetry is often written in ways that shroud its true meaning with flowery or grandiose metaphors, the point of which may be to usher the poet and poetry-lover into exclusive, hallowed fellowship. As confusing as it might seem when a secular poet tricks us into the numinous with a seemingly mundane subject, so have many sages incited great sanctimony when they attempt to share the all consuming joy of Divine experience through the language of love. Admittedly, what happens when the outer meaning shimmers away to reveal the wonderful treasures of inner meaning is truly a delightful experience. None conveys that more playfully than Hafiz:

What Happens

What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken

Your eyes

And your heart

And the cells of your body

To the great journey of Love?

First there is wonderful laughter

And probably precious tears

And a hundred sweet promises

And those heroic vows

No one can ever keep.

But still God is delighted and amused

You once tried to be a saint.

What happens when your soul
Begin to awake in this world

To our deep need to love

And serve the Friend?

O the Beloved
Will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions--
Like Hafiz.

A beautiful meditation. Have a wonderful week and say 'hello' when you meet the stranger who has loved you...all your life.

 

Peace and blessings