THE WHEEL OF CHANGE

Pray not! the Darkness will not brighten! Ask


Nought from the Silence, for it cannot speak! Vex not your mournful minds with pious pains!


Ah! Brothers, Sisters! seek


Nought from the helpless gods by gift and hymn,


Nor bribe with blood, nor feed with fruit and cakes; Within yourselves deliverance must be sought;


Each man his prison makes.



Forever -- is composed of Nows --


Forever -- is composed of Nows --
'Tis not a different time --
Except for Infiniteness --
And Latitude of Home --


From this -- experienced Here --
Remove the Dates -- to These --
Let Months dissolve in further Months --
And Years -- exhale in Years --


Without Debate -- or Pause --
Or Celebrated Days --
No different Our Years would be
From Anno Domini's --



― Emily Dickinson (1862)



Me from Myself -- to banish



Me from Myself -- to banish --
Had I Art --
Impregnable my Fortress
Unto All Heart --


But since Myself -- assault Me --
How have I peace
Except by subjugating
Consciousness?


And since We're mutual Monarch
How this be
Except by Abdication --
Me -- of Me?


~ Emily Dickinson (1862)



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