"A Saucer of Loneliness"

Sometimes a story stays with us, becomes a part of our lives, a part of our knowledge of the world.
Sometimes a story changes the way we look at life, at our surroundings, at ourselves.

"A saucer of Loneliness" is a short story written by Theodore Sturgeon. It is 40 years since I read it, and it has stayed with me.

Here is a link to the complete text.

And here is a link to a Wiki article about this story.

Sturgeon is a SF writer that I feel a kinship to, I feel that we come from the same place.

And I have used this poem in the story as a tool – to connect with myself, and sometimes to connect with others who need to get in touch with their inner loneliness and can’t find a way to get started.


There is in certain living souls
A quality of loneliness unspeakable,
So great it must be shared
As company is shared by lesser beings.
Such a loneliness is mine; so know by this
That in immensity
There is one lonelier than you.

And even to loneliness, there is an end.
For those who are lonely enough, long enough.

What are your reactions to it?