If you wish to attend the read around (t’s free, fun, a great way to share, and reading a poem is optional). Note: If you registered already, you do not need to register again, simply use the link sent to you in your confirmation email. Register Here:

Note: Next Read-Around is Thursday, June 1, 2023
at 5:00 PM PST

My Thoughts

Leanne O’ Sullivan’s poem, Leaving Early, was written to her husband while he was in a coma on a nght when she had to leave his hospital bed early. One of the most frightening experiences in life has to be a coma, lost in a cloud of unknowing, unable to respond, whether or not you feel the loving hand in yours or hear the whispered voice in your ear. It is also frightening to be at the bedside of a loved one who is on that precipice of life and death and have to leave early, not knowing what might happen in your absence. O’Sullivan’s poetic solution is to invoke the strength of a mythinc character, Fionualla, the eldest sister of the Children of Lir, who had to shepehrd her siblings through a 900 year curse as swans confined to frigid lakes. Her poem speaks about the vigilance it takes and the distance we will go and the helplessness we feel when we cannot get through to a lost loved one. And her husband’s coma is also a form of leaving early. In those desperate moments, it is natural to invoke the intercession of gods, angels, saints, or heroes, whether or not we ascribe to a particular faith. Timeless stories are timeless for a reason and we can find solace in that mythic landscape where our soul’s wander and meet each other, even when we are lost to our own earth-light.

  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 in the column on the right

  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

Leaving Early

My Love,

tonight Fionnuala is your nurse.
You’ll hear her voice sing-song around the ward
lifting a wing at the shore of your darkness.
I heard that, in another life, she too journeyed
through a storm, a kind of curse, with the ocean
rising darkly around her, fierce with cold,
and no resting place, only the frozen
rocks that tore her feet, the light on her shoulders.

And no cure there but to wait it out.
If, while I’m gone, your fever comes down –
if the small, salt-laden shapes of her song
appear to you as a first glimmer of earth-light,
follow the sweet, hopeful voice of that landing.
She will keep you safe beneath her wing.

Leanne O-Sullivan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leanne_O'Sullivan
Note: You can also find this poem along with beautiful commentary in Padraig O. Tuama’s wonderful book, Poetry Unbound

Prompt Ideas

  1. Jounral or write a poem about a time when a loved one was ill and how it affected you. Or, conversely, write about a time when you were ill and how it affected your loved ones and those around you.

  2. Journal or write a poem about a time when you could not get through to someone who was lost (mentally, emotionally, socially, etc.). Or, conversely, describe your own experience of what it is like to be lost (mentally, emotionally, socially, etc.) and how it affected you when others tried to get through to you..

  3. Use O’Sullivan’s image of the shore of your darkness as your prompt and free write whtever comes to mind.

  4. Journal or write a poem about journeying through a storm in life, or about being cursed.

  5. What was yor favorite story, movie, or cartoon when you were young? In what way does that story or a character from that story fit your life now? Or consider what story character you would call upon to be beside you when lost.

  6. Write abut the experience of waiting (especially a kind of interminable waiting). You could use the prompt, With no cure but to wait it out… and write whatever comes to mind.

  7. O’Sullivan refers to the “first glimmer of earth-light,” and the “sweet, hopeful voice” that her husband could follow in his return from the coma. What image, sound, or symbol might serve to return you to life when you are lost or feel forsaken?

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