This is Episode 37 of Poems to Live Well By.

Today’s poem is "Leaving the Empty Room", by Stephen Dunn

You can read the poem here.

Stephen Dunn was an American poet, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, who died in 2021 at the age of 82. 

His subject matter was the normal everyday triumphs and tragedies, disappointments and despairs, and his style was described as easygoing and conversational, which meant you might have to look closely to see the seriousness below. 

This poem is a study (I think) of loneliness, of emptiness, and of the impulse and thoughtlessness often baked into life’s big decisions. 

I don’t know the context of the poem, but it was included in a 2011 edition of the Paris Review, and I do know that Dunn was married to his first wife Lois for almost 40 years before divorcing in 2001. Maybe that’s relevant here, maybe it's not. 

I suspect that this sensation—a feeling of emptiness that seems to fill up when you leave—is something many of us have experienced in our lives.

Music Credit:

Once Upon a Time by Alex-Productions | https://onsound.eu/  | Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com