POEMS THAT MAKE YOU THINK

EAST COKER  By T.S. Eliot:

I said to my soul, be still,

and wait without hope

For hope would be hope for the wrong thing;

wait without love

For love would be love of the wrong thing;

there is yet faith

But the faith and the love and the hope

are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought;

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness

the dancing.

LOVE AFTER LOVE by Derek Walcott, 1996 Nobel Prize winner for literature

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. Relax.”

You will love again this stranger who is your Self.

Give wine. Give bread.

Give back your heart,

to itself,

to this stranger who has loved you

all your life,

whom you ignored for another,

but who knows you by heart.

       KNOW THYSELF By Paul Murray

 There is a world within you

no one has ever seen,

a voice no one has ever heard—

not even you,

as yet unknown,

you are your own inner seer,

your own interpreter.

And so without eyes and ears grown sharp

for voice or sign,

listen well,

not to these words

but to that inward voice,

that impulse beating in your heart like a wave.

Turn to that source and you will find

what no one has ever found,

a ground within you no one has ever seen,

a world beyond limits of your dreams’ horizons. 
 
 

Please note: the words for this poem were taken from an audio tape and so the exact format of the poem is not correct.