A tender poem doubles as a guide to sitting comfortably in one’s own company

There is a you
telling you another story of you.
Listen to her.

The Irish writer and theologian Pádraig Ó Tuama’s poem ‘How to Be Alone’ (also styled as ‘How to Belong Be Alone’) packages some practical advice for approaching life – in moments and over the decades – into some very eloquent stanzas. This animated treatment, which sees Ó Tuama narrating and the animator Leo G Franchi providing visuals, uses a cool colour palette and a style emulating a collage of paper cut-outs to draw out the poem’s gentle and tactile qualities. The resulting short is a brief yet powerful reminder of how to find comfort in one’s own company.