Sleep. Breathe. Dream.

For my creative writing class this semester, we had to write a short sonnet sequence. They don't have traditional rhyme or meter, but here they are. I'm tentatively calling them Sleeping Sonnets, for lack of a more fitting title. Let me know what you think.

I

I’ve wandered to a psychedelic dream
where every expectation is denied
and set upside-down again
and again in hushed reversal.

Your name was not your name.
Your eyes were not your eyes.
Your life was not your life.
Your soul was not your soul.

As I sleep and listen to your quiet, soft, unhurried breath
and I wander through my dreams beside you,
listening behind and back
for whispered answers,

I know in swirls of living color,
that none of this was meant to be expected.


II

Not listening for your sleeping breath
it intrudes upon my dreams without permission.
Blending with the swirling colors of my restless sleep,
I begin to hear the subtle sounds of you beside me.

You’re the open secret I’ve been keeping in my dreams
as you wander where I would have you not.
Finding deep, dark crevasses
where you find everything you need to know again.

Your beating heart joins your sleeping breath
in my distant memories of here and now.
Your quiet rhythms shift the pulse of my dreams
in this close and secret room of technicolor visions.

Nothing in the night, and nothing in my dreams
will ever sound the same again.


III

Over and over,
I look over at you
to find you only sleeping
and I listen for your tired breath.

I wonder what it is
that makes me listen so intently
for the quiet words
that will not come.

The beating heart
and the sleeping breath
of your peaceful body
wash over my waking brain.

You pull me towards you as you slumber
and draw me from insomnia again.

Looking Back

Sorry about the delay, I’m a few days later than I meant to be. But back to my media fast. Days one and three (I’ll get back to day two later) went surprisingly well. Day one was wonderful. I finally finished redoing my room. After an entire summer, I was able to finish everything in one day once I got rid of all the distractions. I now have a beautiful, bright, peaceful, and slightly quirky room. (Too bad I’m moving back into UB tomorrow and I’ll have to leave this room behind.) I went to bed that first night ecstatic with the way things were going. How well the first day of my media/technology break went just made the crash and burn the second day that much worse. There were outside factors that I won’t get into here, but it was just a bad day all around. The first day, it was easy to stick with the fast, but the second day proved to me just how hard it is to go through a normal, crazy day without being sucked in by some aspect of media. The switched on Television, combined with a desire to be near my family overtook any vestiges of will-power I had left. If that had been all, it wouldn’t really be an issue. Those were, after all, special circumstances right? But I just kept going from there. Once the floodgates were opened a crack, I determinedly wedged them open wider and wider until they were gaping, and I kept them there with my stress long beyond the reasons I originally had. I stayed up late into the night, watching television and fending off any reason to go to sleep. The next day went smoothly again, with very few hiccups in the plan, but it seemed almost like an afterthought following the two days that were such polar opposites. I did a lot of writing and drawing, as well as finishing some unfinished projects. My media fast left me more aware of the relationship I have with media and technology, and I hope I can keep that awareness as I head back to school.