Poetry and Sleep
Phase Delay
By Ilan Mayer
It is already late at night.
I lie in bed; there is no light.
I close my eyes and I count sheep,
but still I cannot fall asleep.
The minutes pass, the hours crawl.
The clock is ticking on the wall.
I need my rest for goodness sake,
but still I’m lying wide awake.
Street light through blinds and curtains sneaks
and on the wall paints whitish streaks.
I turn then away my face,
but still am not in sleep’s embrace.
The hours pass, I’m still awake.
Already dawn begins to break.
Through blinds and curtains sunlight streams -
I’m far away from sleep and dreams.
My mother says my ways are wrong -
I stay up working far too long
at the computer late at night
instead of turning off the light
and lying quietly in bed
with total darkness ‘round my head,
without a whisper or a cough
until I finally doze off.
My mother does not understand
that I such torture cannot stand -
myself in bed so long to keep
and try in vain to fall asleep.
It may be very very late,
and I’m too tired to think straight;
the minutes pass, the hours creep,
but still I cannot fall asleep.
Sometimes for twenty hours straight
or even more for sleep I wait.
There is no reason and no rhyme,
it can at last come any time.
Sometimes I fall asleep at noon,
sometimes at sunrise, none to soon.
There is no order to my sleep -
This makes it hard a schedule keep.
This makes it hard to sit in class,
to study well, exams to pass.
I may be drowsy or come late
and trouble have to concentrate.
I saw a doctor who did say
“It’s a rare disorder - phase delay.”
“My melatonin” he did state
“is every day produced too late.”
He gave me melatonin pills,
one pack placebo, one pack real -
A double blind test that will tell
if melatonin makes me well.
I take the pills and try to see
if they are really helping me.
At first I did not really know,
yet hoped that things get better though.
However, later I could feel
that my sleep improved for real.
A month has passed, the first pack spent,
my sleep improvement underwent.
When I began the second pack
my sleeplessness indeed came back,
so it’s placebo, and indeed
for melatonin I have need.
Potato Clock
Roger McGough
A potato clock, a potato clock
Has anybody got a potato clock?
A potato clock, a potato clock
Oh where can I find a potato clock?
I went down to London the other day
Found myself a job with a lot of pay
Carrying bricks on a building-site
From early in the morning till late at night
No one here works as hard as me
I never even break for a cup of tea
My only weakness, my only crime
Is that I can never get to work on time
A potato clock, a potato clock
Has anybody got a potato clock?
A potato clock, a potato clock
Oh where can I find a potato clock?
I arrived this morning half an hour late
The foreman came up in a terrible state
‘You’ve got a good job, but you’ll lose it, cock,
If you don’t get up at eight o’clock.’
Up at eight o’clock, up at eight o’clock
Has anybody got up at eight o’clock?
Up at eight o’clock, up at eight o’clock
Oh where can I find up at eight o’clock?
Gil Vicente
H.W. Longfellow
If thou art sleeping, maiden,
Awake and open thy door.
‘Tis the break of day, and we must away
O’er meadow, and mount, and moor.
Wait not find thy slippers,
But come with thy naked feet;
We shall have to pass through the dewy grass
And waters wide and fleet.
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