Love After Love: Derek Walcott's Poetic Ode to Being at Home in Ourselves
Syndicated from brainpickings.org, Jun 16, 2015
“Sit. Feast on your life.”
The great Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh has written beautifully about why learning to love others begins with learning to love ourselves — a sentiment that the reactive modern cynic might dismiss as the vacant fodder of self-help books, but one which more considered reflection reveals to be deeply truthful and deeply uncomfortable. What, after all, does loving oneself even mean — particularly if we’re aspiring to be unselfish and generous, and to outgrow the illusory ego-shell we call a self?
That’s what Caribbean poet and playwright Derek Walcott (b. January 23, 1930) — a writer of such extraordinary poetic prowess that his 1992 Nobel Prize in Literature appears a wholly inadequate measure of his mastery and mesmerism — addresses with a luminous sidewise gleam in a poem titled “Love After Love,” found in his Collected Poems: 1948–1984 (public library).
On an archival On Being episode titled “Opening to Our Lives,” mindfulness pioneer Jon Kabat-Zinn reads Walcott’s masterpiece — undoubtedly one of the greatest, most soul-stretching poems ever written. Please enjoy:
This article originally appeared in Brain Pickings and is republished with permission. The author, Maria Popova, is a cultural curator and curious mind at large, who also writes for Wired UK, The Atlantic and Design Observer, and is the founder and editor in chief of Brain Pickings.
SHARE YOUR REFLECTION
4 Past Reflections
On Aug 15, 2015 Mike Hansel wrote:
I found this article, incredbly inspiring. I'm sure you will to. It's brief and to the point. Do Check it out. http://worldobserveronline....
On Aug 1, 2015 joan swift wrote:
That I'm busy reposting every article that I read on your site - says it all !
On Jun 16, 2015 Edward Colcord wrote:
Hello,
Great site. Look forward to the daily post. Only to add (if it doesn't, delete) to the front page quote by Shakyamuni Buddha it's interesting that it's a transliteration of the Pali Canon:
Searching all directions
with one’s awareness,
one finds no one dearer
than oneself.
In the same way, others
are fiercely dear to themselves.
So one should not hurt others
if one loves oneself.
The subtle difference is that self-hate is pretty much unknown outside the West. Thank you.
On Dec 29, 2016 Anne G McWilliams wrote:
Found it! https://flic.kr/p/5Ugepo
https://www.flickr.com/phot...
Haven't contacted the photographers, but descriptions on Flickr indicate San Francisco, CA, Land's End
Is it possible to find the credit for the photo of the labyrinth by the sea that illustrates the soundcloud reading of the poem? I hope to find out more about where that photo was taken, and if it is possible to visit that location. Thanks
Post Your Reply