For a Nurse
This is a heartfelt tribute to the compassion, resilience, and quiet heroism of nurses, inspired by John O’ Donohue’s own sister, who was a nurse at the time. Widely shared during the COVID-19 pandemic, the poem served as a reminder of the emotional strength of nurses working on the frontlines.
For a Nurse
by John O’Donohue
In this fragile frontier-place, your kindness
Becomes the light that consoles the broken-hearted,
Awakens within desperate storms
That oasis of serenity that calls
The spirit to rise from beneath the weight of pain,
To create a new space in the person's mind
Where they gain distance from their suffering
And begin to see the invitation
To integrate and transform it.
May you embrace the beauty in what you do
And how you stand like a secret angel
Between the bleak despair of illness
And the unquenchable light of spirit
That can turn the darkest destiny towards dawn.
Excerpt from the blessing, 'For a Nurse,' found in his books,
To Bless the Space Between Us (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
