Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at a photo taken by Kathleen Sullivan and read the poem “Breakage” by Mary Oliver, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Tell a story of the broken and then opened.”

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

Please join us for our next session Friday September 11th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Photo credit: Kathleen Sullivan

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“Breakage” by Mary Oliver

I go down to the edge of the sea. 
How everything shines in the morning light! 
The cusp of the whelk, 
the broken cupboard of the clam, 
the opened, blue mussels, 
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarred— 
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split, 
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone. 
It’s like a schoolhouse 
of little words, 
thousands of words. 
First you figure out what each one means by itself, 
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop 

       full of moonlight.Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.   

Credit: Mary Oliver. Source: Poetry (August 2003)