Soooo, I had a great night's rest (this is a picture of our bedroom) and I had about half an hour to sit and write some poems today. The first is inspired by Valerie telling me to write a poem about going to sleep last night. And these are both close studies of Denise Levertov poems. In fact, the structure is the same and they have similar themes. I don't know how anyone gets better at any art without imitation. I feel that I grow leaps in imitation. Here's the first.
The Secrets That We Keep
Long after you slip to sleep
going on before
I speak my thoughts to you
and you, prone and drifting,
give answer
from the auguries of dream.
I ask tonight, If we love better,
and you oracle back:
The moon is only the sun’s,
the waves the moon’s, the sky
the waves’.
For all, to all, jealousy is king.
Be jealous for me and I’ll never
let the earth
claim you, from bones to words.
And then you roll, tuck the pillow
into your arms
and sink too deep for speak.
Now I will scratch a little more,
climb next to you,
buy the same long ticket.
I can't help but notice that you write about us and sleep A LOT. Almost all the poems that are about me, or about you and me, involve sleep. What do you think that means?
ReplyDeleteWell, I think it's the time I'm writing these. Or at least in the last week. I'm hoping for a lucid state of mind and day writing all this week.
ReplyDeleteAnd they involve you because I've finally learned how to write about you. It took me eight years. That seems long enough.
Love the bedroom. I wish I had shelves like that. And this description before the poem helps to clarify my comment on the poem that follows this one.
ReplyDelete