"For the Breakup of a Relationship", by John O'Donohue
- susanalabordeblaj
- Dec 27, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jan 17
Thanks to my friend Brynna for sharing this with me.
It is part of a longer poem called "For the Breakup of a Relationship" (see below full poem),
p.165 of the incredible book "To Bless the Space Between Us".
This is the time to be slow
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.
Read full poem:
For The Breakup of a Relationship
by John O'Donohue
Now you endeavor
to gather yourself
And withdraw in slow
Animal woundedness
From love turned sour and ungentle.
When we love, the depth in us
Trusts itself forward until
The empty space between
Becomes gradually woven
Into an embrace where longing
Can close its weary eyes.
Love can seldom end clean;
For all the tissue is torn
And each lover turned stranger
Is dropped into a ruin of distance
Where emptiness is young and fierce.
Time becomes strange and slipshod;
It mixes memories that felt
The kiss of the eternal
With the blistering hurt of now.
Unknown to themselves
Certain small things
Touch nerve-lines to the heart
And bring back with color and force
All that is utterly lost.
This is the time to be slow
Lie low to the wall
Until the bitter weather passes.
Try, as best you can, not to let
The wire brush of doubt
Scrape from your heart
All sense of yourself
And your hesitant light.
If you remain generous,
Time will come good;
And you will find your feet
Again on fresh pastures of promise,
Where the air will be kind
And blushed with beginning.
From the book To Bless the Space Between Us A Book of Blessings
More about John O'Donohue (Wikipedia)
Read more poems by John O'Donohue: