Monday, June 11, 2012

Monday Poetry Stretch - To Sleep

Woohoo! This is me sliding the stretch in under the wire! I'm operating on about 4 hours of sleep, having spent 11 hours in the Philadelphia airport waiting and hoping to get home on Sunday. I did finally make it home in the wee hours of Monday morning.

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!
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.
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.

15 comments:

  1. A Conch Shell
    By 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

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 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

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    2. Thank you very much, Julie!

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  2. I'll Haiku You To Sleep

    The 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

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    Replies
    1. "ninja of the cradle" has stayed with me all week!

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  3. Sweet Dreams

    Tender 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

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  4. THE STAY AWAKE RACE


    Eyelids
    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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Love the title, and the pacing!

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    2. Thanks Steven! Look forward to joining you in Pat's anthology in the fall.

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  5. That's for that prompt! I'm too sleep-deprived to write a new sleep limerick, but here's an old one:

    Sleepless 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

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    Replies
    1. "brain" and "upbraiding" make an intriguing pair!

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  6. nighttime chill

    footsteps 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

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    Replies
    1. 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)!

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  7. PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB

    Sshhhh. 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.

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