New Face by Alice Walker - Reflective Post

What is love? Love, for me, is the most wonderful word that has ever been “created”. So often it is thrown around and the true meaning is somehow lost along the way.  It is often twisted and deformed from a word with such passion and care to the storge meaning, which has little value. Most would agree that loving someone and being loved is one of the best feelings, but it can also be the worst when love is lost. When that happens, we feel as though we’re the loneliest person in the world with no one to turn to. Not even our family or best friends can help us deal with the pain of a break up. When going through hard times such as these, though absurd as it may seem, quotes and poems help me through.  I have come to realize that poems and quotes help us to understand that we are not alone and that there are other people out there experiencing the same pain of a broken heart. Knowing that others have gone through the same fate and survived gives us solace and strength to keep it together. Also in the same light, Poems and quotes are encouraging even when we are experiencing love.

Letting go is sometimes hard, but I’ve come to realize that “sometimes things just don’t work out with someone because there is some other person out there who is destined to be with us; who will love us just the way we want to.” It’s hard to believe, but God has someone for each one of us out there. There is someone just for me! Who will love all of my quirks and my silly ways. Who will treat me like a princess (I mean, come on? What girl doesn’t want to be Cinderella?) And who will love me for me!

The poem “New Face” by Alice Walker is now one of my new favorite poems. Its simple, yet deep concept gives the reader hope for love. The poem starts by saying, “I have learned not to worry about love; but to honor it’s coming”. This reminds me of 1 Corinthians 13:4 which says, “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.” This verse shows the Christian style of love. God teaches us to appreciate love, but not to be controlled by it.

The person in the poem goes on to examine “the dark mysteries of the blood” which is a simile within the poem. Blood is red and the color red symbolizes passion. Therefore the poet is expressing that passionate love is mysterious. The poet also uses words such as “spring” to add a sense of continuity of water which continues into a motif that love is “flowing” like a spring. Ergo, God is our inexhaustible source of love and life.  One can note the fulcrum of the entire poem in the lines “the new face I turn up/ to you/ no one else on earth/ has ever/ seen”. When you’re in love, you will show that person a side (face) of you that no one else has ever seen. This is where everything is forever changed.

To conclude, The verse Song of Solomon 8:4 says “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, Do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases.” This verse is a challege for me. God is telling us to listen and follow where He leads, to walk in his footsteps, not our own.  If we seek God, the rest will follow. When we seek and draw near to God, He works in us according to His good will and pleasure.  He is to be our first love and then all others follow.  “A woman should be so lost in God, that a man needs to seek Him in order to find her.”