I wish you the peace of sleep,
your breath a canoe
that carries you
toward the next moment
without any need
for you to touch the oars.
How easily you arrive.
Oh, to trust the world like that—
trust you will be carried,
not just in sleep,
but in waking dreams,
trust no matter how high the waves,
the skiff of grace
has a seat for you.
And oh, to let go of the oars—
there is no steering
toward what comes next.
Posts Tagged ‘sleep’
With the Stars All Around
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged breath, control, dream, letting go, life, sleep, trust on August 4, 2021| 5 Comments »
Things to Do While Not Asleep
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awake, night, sleep on October 21, 2020| 4 Comments »
Check the time. Reach for scraps of the dream you just woke from.
Close your eyes again. Remind yourself of studies that say
you’re still getting rest even if you feel awake. Curse the studies.
Curse the awakeness. Notice how cursing wakes you even more.
Toss. Count breaths of the person sleeping next to you.
Tell yourself not to be resentful of them, though you are.
Touch your hand to the sleep heavy weight of their leg. Breathe.
Try not to remember something terrible you did long ago.
Perseverate on the details. Wish you could apologize,
though you’ve long since forgotten the names.
Determine that starting tomorrow morning you will be a better person
in a belated attempt to atone for past mistakes.
Tell yourself not to look at the clock again. Look at the clock again.
Calculate to the minute how long you’ve been awake. Worry
about tomorrow. Worry about your kids. Worry about the country.
Worry that you worry too much. Refuse to look at the clock.
There is a lake in the night, dark and deep. Feel yourself held by it,
as if you are floating. As if the night buoys you, cradles you like a mother.
Miss your mother. Take a few strokes in the night lake. Notice
how quiet it is. Feel yourself slip beneath its surface.
When the light comes, swim toward the light.
While I Was Sleeping
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged body, dream, poem, poetry, sleep on September 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »
And while I was sleeping, dreaming yet again
of being on stage without knowing my lines,
my erector spinae muscles decided to wrestle
with bears and my rhomboids crash landed
after the parachute didn’t open. My levator
scapulae muscles lifted ten refrigerators and
my trapezii danced in stilettos for hours. Is it any wonder
I woke unable to move my neck? There are days
we realize just how grateful we are for parts
of the body we never could name
until today the bodyworker wrote them down,
how lucky we are to take them for granted.
There are days when we wake and realize
how much happens in our sleep. There are days
we think how much easier it would be
to just end up on a stage not knowing
our lines. Darn those bears. Darn those high heels.
Two Things I Would Give You
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged friendship, giving, poem, poetry, purpose, sleep on September 18, 2019| 7 Comments »
Sleep, of course. Long,
uninterrupted hours of sleep.
For a week. For a month.
For a year. You’d just put your head
on the pillow, and sleep
would come meet you
like a devoted friend, or like
a dog that will come whenever you call,
and snuggle with you all night.
And then, when you woke,
I would give you the certainty
that life is worth waking for,
that you are beloved,
that everything you do
makes a difference, and
by everything, I mean everything.
One Resistance
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, sleep on July 7, 2019| 2 Comments »
Forgiveness 101
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged forgiveness, poem, poetry, sleep on February 21, 2019| 7 Comments »
The first person I forgive today is myself
for staying up too late last night—how
I loved reading into the late hours, the story
crooking its finger at me, tethering me
to its pages. What good does it do
to call myself stupid, to lash out at the part of me
who thrives on those slender moments
when I am alone and the house is quiet
and I am the sister of words. No, better to tell
that late night reader that I’m tired.
Better to smile at her, though she thwarts
the morning me who loves to rise feeling rested.
She does not apologize. I know I will have
to forgive her again. Somehow, when I start
with myself, it makes it easier all day long
to practice forgiveness for others—
the slow drivers, the complainers, the bullies,
the pouters. They probably have happier,
calmer, more rational selves, too,
that they are also thwarting. All day I practice seeing
the heart of a person. All day, when I yawn, I smile.
Wild Rose Goes to Bed Early
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged alter ego, insomnia, poem, poetry, sleep on June 22, 2016| 2 Comments »
That bed looks so great.
There is nothing right now
she needs to do but slip
between those soft blue sheets
and close her eyes.
She has no words that must be written,
no lessons to plan, no bills to pay,
no conversations to have.
She is tired, and she deserves to sleep
right now. She doesn’t worry for an instant
that there will be consequences.
She looks out the window
at the light across the street,
sees the silhouette of the woman
who lives there as she
fusses and rushes and hunches over her desk.
What could be more important
than dreams. Whatever needs be done,
tomorrow is soon enough.
Before We Say a Word
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged awakening, love, poem, poetry, sleep, tenderness on February 27, 2015| 4 Comments »
I like my body in the mornings
when the light has not yet stolen the room,
and when you, in darkness, turn your length
toward my length and bend your body
to match the curve of my spine.
I like the warmth our bodies find,
I like your legs bowed into mine,
your feet like a tangle of roots about my feet.
I like my neck when it’s touched by your breath,
and I like my waist when your hand rests there.
And my belly, I like how soft it is, like sweet dough rising.
So tender, this drowsy, dreamy, yielding state
when we are more flesh than name, more limb than thought,
more breath than what we know.
And the darkness holds us quietly,
your body, my body, oh how we linger,
indulgent, our boundaries blurred,
while all around us, even inside us,
the world with its edges and certainties
begins to dawn.
Sometimes a Chance
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, present, sleep on June 4, 2013| 6 Comments »
Laying beside
someone asleep,
listen to their tide
of breath. They
are like shells
held to your ear,
reminding you
how we come
from the sea.
Put up your sails
and travel here
in the morning’s
small dark hours.
Never mind you can’t
read the currents.
Never mind you
can’t remember
your name or how
you got here,
how to get home
or why you came.
There are no
anchors. No
horizons. The
waves are never
quite the same.