The Uses of Sorrow
(In my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
Mary Oliver, (1935-2019) Pulitzer Prize & National Book Award poet
“I love this little poem and was very grateful to be able to get permission to use it in my book because I’ve come to realize that the most important pieces of wisdom that I have gained in my life were found in the boxes of darkness that were given to me.”
Barbara E. Hort, Ph.D. Jungian counselor,
trainer of psychodramaturgy and author of
Hollow Crown of Fire: A Discovery of Meaning
in the Coronavirus Pandemic and Its Predecessors
