Sleep
A small, elusive nut
best opened with a feather.
Impatient nights
hammer skin and pulp
in a rage to claim it.
I'm calloused by my stupidity,
still numb
from previous assaults.
It's there,
this master or apprentice of Dolus,
waiting to be claimed.
The music of it taunts,
the nature of it slips.
I am the cat
who knows where happiness is,
but can't resist
the tail.
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Sleep
Re: Sleep
Colm,
That last verse is a poem in its own right. Both cryptic and explicit. As soon as I read it I felt its claws locking into my memory.
Maybe all poets are cats. Chasing the flickering everyday interests of life, or sat in a quiet sunlit corner pondering the deeper mysteries. Slipping between the two adjacent worlds like a time-traveller.
Gyppo
That last verse is a poem in its own right. Both cryptic and explicit. As soon as I read it I felt its claws locking into my memory.
Maybe all poets are cats. Chasing the flickering everyday interests of life, or sat in a quiet sunlit corner pondering the deeper mysteries. Slipping between the two adjacent worlds like a time-traveller.
Gyppo
I've been writing ever since I realised I could. Storytelling since I started talking. Poetry however comes and goes
- Tracy Mitchell
- Posts: 3473
- Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 3:58 pm
Re: Sleep
Colm -- wonderful poem. I especially liked S.1-3, the brevity and briskness in service to your theme-- no pussyfooting. And I am mightily taken by the last S. as well.
Gyppo - interesting comment. I saw this recently:
George Keithley noted that the word image in ancient Syrian means both icon and angel. An image, Keithley suggested, is like an angel -- a messenger moving between the physical world and the divine. Through images we enter the imagination -- a doorway to the divine. Images can appear as messages from the unconscious, especially in dreams and daydreams, but also in the real world, in everyday life -- if we are open to them.
Gyppo - interesting comment. I saw this recently:
George Keithley noted that the word image in ancient Syrian means both icon and angel. An image, Keithley suggested, is like an angel -- a messenger moving between the physical world and the divine. Through images we enter the imagination -- a doorway to the divine. Images can appear as messages from the unconscious, especially in dreams and daydreams, but also in the real world, in everyday life -- if we are open to them.
Re: Sleep
Both the opening and closing lines are stunning--I mean sleep as "a nut opened with a feather"---I know those nights, the body as "skin and pulp". Fabulous!
I believe your writing has taken a quantum leap over the last couple of years, I'm in awe (however I still remember "owl boy" with great fondness).
And Tracy, that quote you responded with is wonderful as well.
I believe your writing has taken a quantum leap over the last couple of years, I'm in awe (however I still remember "owl boy" with great fondness).
And Tracy, that quote you responded with is wonderful as well.
Re: Sleep
Thank you all for your generous comments
Thankfully I don't suffer from an inability to fall asleep quickly, even when I go to bed relatively early without beer. But I can feel for anyone who struggles to sleep. And so far my bladder is behaving, so my sleep isn't even broken.
The last S is based on a children's story. A conversation between a kitten and a cat. The kitten knows that happiness is in her tail, so she constantly chases it. The cat tells the kitten that he too discovered the source of all happiness is in their tails, and he too could never catch it. Eventually he realised that the less obsessed he became about catching his tail, the happier he became. And happiness just followed him around (wagging) wherever he went.
I thought that tied in well with chasing sleep.
Thankfully I don't suffer from an inability to fall asleep quickly, even when I go to bed relatively early without beer. But I can feel for anyone who struggles to sleep. And so far my bladder is behaving, so my sleep isn't even broken.
The last S is based on a children's story. A conversation between a kitten and a cat. The kitten knows that happiness is in her tail, so she constantly chases it. The cat tells the kitten that he too discovered the source of all happiness is in their tails, and he too could never catch it. Eventually he realised that the less obsessed he became about catching his tail, the happier he became. And happiness just followed him around (wagging) wherever he went.
I thought that tied in well with chasing sleep.