I am tired. And longing for sleep. But there is no rest for the weary. So, today I am thinking Keats might inspire us.
To Sleepby John Keats
O soft embalmer of the still midnight!I'm not sure I have a sonnet in me this week, but I think I can be persuaded to write about sleep. How about you? Leave me a note about your poem and I'll share the results here later this week.
Shutting with careful fingers and benign
Our gloom-pleased eyes, embower'd from the light,
Enshaded in forgetfulness divine;
O soothest Sleep! if so it please thee, close,
In midst of this thine hymn, my willing eyes,
Or wait the amen, ere thy poppy throws
Around my bed its lulling charities;
Then save me, or the passed day will shine
Upon my pillow, breeding many woes;
Save me from curious conscience, that still lords
Its strength for darkness, burrowing like a mole;
Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards,
And seal the hushed casket of my soul.
A Conch Shell
ReplyDeleteBy Steven Withrow
Some sculptor’s left a mask
Constructed to endure
Wave-breaks in spate that cudgel
Its curvature.
A plaster of a pure
And alabaster gloss—
It is a visage creased
With copper dross.
Ridges of nodules cross
From its upper spire, down
In nautilus rotations
To its under-crown.
Heft it, turn it frowning
Toward you, as though the snail
Who lately helmed this ship
Were still at sail
In the belly of a whale,
A pearled concavity
Where, body swirled, she slept,
And formerly
Dreamt of depths unplumbed by any sea.
© 2012 by Steven Withrow, all rights reserved
Love this, Steven. Love its sound and sense. As always, your eye for detail is amazing. So good to see/hear you in this venue again. Julie
DeleteThank you very much, Julie!
DeleteI'll Haiku You To Sleep
ReplyDeleteThe moon's single eye
Will not fail to keep it's watch.
Little one, please sleep.
The puzzling breeze
Rocks the trees in the garden.
Let me be your wind.
You fight sleep so hard,
Oh ninja of the cradle.
My eyelids close, too.
©2012 by Jane Yolen, all rights reserved
"ninja of the cradle" has stayed with me all week!
DeleteSweet Dreams
ReplyDeleteTender as silence, sleep descends,
only to be jolted, bashed
into shout and tilt-a-whirl
of action-flick dreams.
--Kate Coombs, 2012
all rights reserved
Definitely a jolt, and a good one!
DeleteTHE STAY AWAKE RACE
ReplyDeleteEyelids
drop, I
try to
make them
stop.
I lift
lashes
in vain,
My effort
goes down
the drain.
Guzzling
coffee,
splashing
water
on my
face?
No good.
I've lost
the stay
awake
race.
Night night.
(c) Charles Waters 2012 all rights reserved.
Love the title, and the pacing!
DeleteThanks Steven! Look forward to joining you in Pat's anthology in the fall.
DeleteThat's for that prompt! I'm too sleep-deprived to write a new sleep limerick, but here's an old one:
ReplyDeleteSleepless Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A woman was trying to snooze,
But was kept wide awake by her muse.
Stubborn rhymes kept invading
Her brain and upbraiding
Her: “Rise and go mock some more news.”
Sleepless Limerick
"brain" and "upbraiding" make an intriguing pair!
Deletenighttime chill
ReplyDeletefootsteps creak-creak,
little ears pop.
brown eyes blink-blink,
big tears drop.
peek in Mama’s bedroom,
wait for Papa’s snore,
listen to the tick-tock,
tiptoe through the door.
tug on Mama’s nightgown.
tap on Papa’s arm.
find the soft place in-between,
where it’s wooly warm.
(c) juliekrantz, 2012
Julie -- I love the balance of vowel sounds in this poem, especially the "o" and "oo" sounds. It's like a little class in how to modulate vowels and consonants -- great plosives (b, p, d, t) and liquids (r, l)!
DeletePLEASE DO NOT DISTURB
ReplyDeleteSshhhh. He's sleeping. The boy must get some rest.
A weekend on the go, has left him tired and stressed.
Talk to him tomorrow when he wakes up quite refreshed.
Disturb him now and he will be, nowhere near his best.
Sweet dreams dear boy.