DARAGH FLEMING

Those Who Hold

You can tell a lot about a person by how they handle pain.
Some people are afraid to touch it, to have it.
They hold it like a childless adult holds a baby –
Uncomfortable, wanting to give it to anyone else.
And sometimes they do. Projecting pain like movies onto
whoever comes near.

But there are others who accept pain. Draw it in close,
hold it tight like an old friend. Nurse it back to health.
And these people are the entire sky. They have capacity
for – not just their own – but the pain of others, too. The
same way the sky can hold an infinity of clouds and not shatter
these people are miracles – taking suffering from those
who can’t hold it any longer.

Daragh Fleming (author of Lonely Boy and A Brief Inhalation) is a writer from Cork, Ireland. He has work in several literary magazines, including Southword, Crannóg, Poetry Wales, Stand, Gutter and more. He was highly commended for both the Patrick Kavanagh Award and the Fool for Poetry Prize in 2023, and shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Poetry Prize in 2024. He won the From the Well Competition in 2021 and the Ducairn Flash Competition in 2024. Daragh was also shortlisted for two Mental Health Media Awards for his TEDx Talk on using creativity to enhance and maintain our mental health.