1. Read the poem 

2. Do your own reflection on it, noting what it inspires in you

3. Feel free to use your own reflection as your prompt or…

4. Use the selection of prompts below the poem

5. Pick one that inspires you and write (feel free to use only one or write several poems using different prompts) or…

6. Don’t use any of the provided prompts and follow your inspiration from wherever it comes

Secret of the Night

You called the hotel to say that 
Zuzu had killed a possum.

It was lying near the birdfeeder
with its tongue sticking out.

You were so upset
and I was so far away.

You said, “I’ll have to bury it.”
I said, “Use the snow shovel 
and put it in the woods,”
thinking, Let it stay in the
labyrinth of nature.

In the morning, it was gone.
You were relieved but compelled
to find out more.

You texted me on the plane:
It is an unconscious reflex that
lets them enter that state when
they are threatened.

They seem to go away 
and what is hunting them
leaves them alone.

If we could only learn how.
You could have gone there
as a child when your father
came home drunk ready
to rage.

And I could have gone there
when my mother slapped my
face extra hard because I asked 
why she was mean.

I’m 35,000 feet up, wanting 
the possum to teach us, so we 
who have been threatened might 
meet there like a crowd of stars 
out of reach of all harm. 

—Mark Nepo

Note: Next Read Around is:
June 11, 2021 at 4:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Every living organism must face threats from time to time. One coping mechanism is to freeze, or, when taken to the extreme, to play dead, like the possum. Mark Nepo describes an incident when his wife called him while he was away upset that their dog had killed a possum. Later, when it disappeared, she realized just how effectively they can play dead. Nepo described the skill of “playing possum” as the ability to “go away so that what is hunting them leaves them alone.” He postulates that such a skill might have helped as children to deal with parental abuse. 

The threats that are most challenging in life often come from those closest to us, those on whom were rely or who should be our protectors and caretakers and especially at a time in life when we don’t have the choice to leave or to fight back. The ability to “freeze” and to go away so thoroughly might be the wisest strategy. Unfortunately, this strategy is devalued in our culture and likely to be perceived as a weakness, and the person who does so perceived as helpless. We do not recognize that our judgment also strips them of their power.

To those who master the skill of freezing, the social judgments about the behavior can easily be misapplied to one’s identity. And then the identity of being weak or helpless actually prevents the person from using and developing other coping strategies. Anyone who has been around a possum knows that they can hiss and claw and bite as well. In other words, “playing dead” is only one coping strategy. And that skill, the ability to withdraw so completely into oneself, to be utterly still, is what many meditation practices aim to achieve. I have been told, by some masters of meditation, that one does indeed arrive at a place out of reach of all harm.

-Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual teacher, best known as author of “The Book of Awakening.”

https://marknepo.com

Prompt Menu

1. Describe a time when someone close to you needed help and you were too far away (physcially, mentally, or emotionally) to be there for them in the way you would like. Or write about a time (likely during this pandemic) when the only help you could offer was through letters or text messages or phone calls.

2. Write a poem about your own use of “playing dead” as a child. For instance, I remember times when I was sure a monster was in the room at night and I would lie as still as possible, barely breathing, hoping the monster would not notice.

3. Write about an encounter you had with death. For example, you could write about a pet that died; or write a eulogy that you could have delivered at the funeral.

4. Write about a time when you thought something had died and later learned it had not died. For instance, when I was young, our cat, Midnight, disappered and was gone for many months. We assumed it was dead. Then, one day, he showed up on the back porch, scruffed up and mangy, but alive.

5. Describe what you do when you “go away” internally. Where do you go, and what triggers you to go there.

6. Write what you imagine a place that is our of reach of all harm might be like. Who would you like to meet there? What would you like to share with the person or hear from the person.

7. As usual, write about anything else that inspires you from the poem or elsewhere in life.