Scarborough Sleeps

 

Distant church bells probe fretted air, where

Roof top gulls roost, wrapped in feathery cloaks.

Shivering clouds sob mournfully about everyone’s panes, and a

Hibernating town huddles under a grey blanket.

 

Shuttered shop fronts rattle their complaints,

Shared only by a spiteful wind that patrols dark doorways.

Customers long departed to foreign part...

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Flag-shaggers claim The Silence is their own:

one such, in ignorance, presumed my guilt,

and sneered: “he is alone”, but knew not why;

“He’s running free”, sez he, “why’s that allowed?”

 

I say to him: “Mate, you know bugger-all:

five comrades, blown to bits of blood and bone,

must keep their silence now, that of the grave;

the silence that I keep has been dear bought,

...

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At midnight, I'm still awake, 

waiting on sleep’s blurred 

hypnagogic state,

a fleeting mirage like journey

crossing at nightfall.

I stretch to cut the bed diagonally, 

her legs retract unconscious

beneath her folded sleeping body.

A knot of blue sky fills my gut,

a worryglow from earlier, flittering 

like a young fish 

 

I sit up, anchored at the bed’s edge, 

...

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if I stare at the roof long enough
would i let it's ink
roll down over me ? 

my shape, pliant and waiting and 
rutting
tilting toward the certainty 
the cooing touch and strain
spreading stygian weight 
pressing down, down, and do...wn

coy and waiting with glistening teeth
brushing, roiling voice 
weight like a purring cinderblock
hands, too many to be real 
too deft to be human 
...

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Night has descended on the fields

but a summer night never darkens, only shields               

dreamers from the day's dull hold

as I am wakeful, bedded cold;

                and the trees stretch into the faded sky  

 

Night has alighted on my mind

but a wakened wraith can only stray, its kind

vanish as summer's dusky night flies on

as I am lost beyond my dream horizo...

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Yesterday

I opened the windows of my room with the night

I let in the stars and slept in their time

    I knew their waning

 

When I awoke

My pillow was flattened with the weight of their time

My mind was present in the immensity of their span

    I knew their past now

 

Today

I curtained the new day in my room with the dawn

I breathed in time and dreamed of the...

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Because I have seen

such small glory as heaven found

Lit translucent in the wing of a dragonfly serene above the dark pond depths

Lit gold in the sunlit pelt of that one white cat still beneath the tree

Lit in Spring's faint skeleton of Winter's fallen leaf

Lit in the fractal eternity of each flake that floats snow down

and know the pain each angel hears

Held in a single seadr...

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Eight hours of sleep

Eight minutes of meditation

Eight cups of H2O

Eight moments of self recognition

A marshmallow cloud

A clear sky

The angels' wings

A path of zen

Fresh start

Clean air

Pure heart

Kind soul

The feeling of 'existence'

The belief in 'purpose'

The mindfulness with 'exhaustion'

The understanding of 'emotion'

My body has these settings

...

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Why do we sleep? What does it do?
Why is it important for me and you?
Sleep helps amend our waking pains.
And tries to cure problems in our brains.

Sleep may be hard if you are too warm,
Or if your mind is in a dreadful form.
So sleepless nights can be frustrating,
And the following day so irritating.

And how do we get ourselves to sleep?
Can it be done by counting sheep?
Or is it th...

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Rest has been begging all afternoon

Soon soon soon, love.

 

Finally home in my top-floor abode

The end of consciousness is near

 

I slip into coziness and turn up the stillness

Oh love, I'm finally here...

 

But no.

 

Silence chokes 

Tranquility cracks

Obnoxious noise intrudes

 

I feel teenybopper bass notes incessantly Bulging up from the floor be...

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Keep the tips of my fingers callused,
The rings to my eye sockets,
Deep and purple.
I do not have the luxury of being lightning in a bottle,
I must make my presence known through substance,
Filling the sea of aspirations with my own,
Intoxicating and plentiful,
The key to any readers hearts,
My own suffering.
I will expose myself bare,
Devour my offering so that I may find release.
Unde...

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Wake and feel,

wake and breathe..

Foggy thoughts..

Where?                What?           Is it?             

Arrrrrrh….

Don’t endure this – it’s a waste.  Live - try to live.

Possible,

move a little

move a little more.

Now.

And Again.

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Bad Poetry

My name is Caleb Gorey

The narrative is

My brain is a literary Rubik’s Cube and not even I can solve it

 

The network of my nerves are syntactic

And my blood vessels are but a poem

Clotted with cells of writer’s block

Because my heart is deprived of the right words to gift  my mouth

And my liver faults again and its screaming

“You can’t have it!”

 

I...

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Stuck in the mud, no seriously, 

I mean literally and not figuratively – it's a conspiracy. 

Because I’m in a rush, but I'm so stuck I can’t even push. 

And my stress levels are on the move, they’re rising, 

I’m watching the clock and it’s hypnotising. 

Too long I've been vexed by this impertinent voice! 

Incessantly chatting into the night with his noise. 

As I sit wide awake...

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four walls

 

lying

thinking in the dark

 

four walls do not

make a room

 

a room needs a floor

and ceiling

 

four walls

a ceiling

and a floor

 

four walls with no door

can keep others out

but keep you in

 

a door

an invitation in

or

an exit out

 

try to decide

which is best

 

door or

no door

 

or roll ov...

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amid starlight she reposes

my life's in her lizard face

that library of dusty looks

records my fall from grace

 

she took the best from me

sucking me dry every day

each wrinkle taunting me

dry pointers to my decay

 

I pray she does not wake

no pity runs in my veins

but violation at the sight

of what sleep she feigns

 

she's a monument to loss

contami...

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gets up in the night to cry

my sleep is being disturbed

wont tell me why but these

disruptions must be curbed

 

I find her downstairs in tears

hugging herself as if in pain

last night it took three hours

I dont want to see it again

 

in her eyes a degree of guilt

something preys on her mind

deep-rooted fits of remorse

as if for someone she pined

 

what ...

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scary night sounds

 

 

he hears the night woods

soft sounds as well as scary

 

different from day woods

 

he lies in his cold bed

in cold room

hears frozen trees

grinding against each other

in the cold night wind

a hard unpleasant sound

 

hears distant sounds

far away in the hills

is it the sound of a wolf

or a coyote seeking a mate

 

owl...

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Sleep is creeping around the corners of my eyelids.
The room is cold.
A shaft of light spies through the curtains,
Why does light do that?
The curtain never wins.
How can sleep festoon about me, when the spirit
Slips through the chink in the fabric
Of time.
I am watching the shape of nothing.
Mesmerised by nothing.
Soon, the shaft will be a beam reaching in,
Dragging me into the day.
S...

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The gentle tingle of your electric finger down my spine

The wistful sigh of warm breath

The glow of deep soft lamplight and the

Caress of fresh clean sheets.

 

You tangle yourself up in me.

Our fingers twirl playfully, our heartbeats 

In rhythm. Ba doom, ba doom.

I feel a trickle of uncomfortable sweat down my clavicle, but the thereness outweighs my overheating body. 

 

...

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Was it true,

sleep depends on tears?

 

To refill the well

that had dried up by day,

 

Or to wet the lids, at the least,

by dreaming sad dreams,

 

With that tearful hope,

had the sleep come by night?

 

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Insomniac

 

The floorboards above

Crack like rheumatic bones

Late at night

The house groans

And wind whispers

Through the open windows

 

The curtains open

The lights out

The darkness presses

Against the window

A streetlight drops

White light on the path

 

I can see a pale moon

Crawling through the trees

A cat sashays

Beneath the porch opposi...

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On the empty wall of my room

I think I'll put a picture of the rain. --

 

Hitting the ground,

And getting up to ankles,

 

The rain will be wetting my socks

And trousers from below;

 

Then my eyes will follow

Roof-edges,

Streets,

Sidewalks,

...tick, tick, tick...

Everything in the picture,

 

Until catching a black brolly,

And the shiny enamel shoes...

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When you told me we were done

That you were thinking of leaving

I tried my best to mend my ways

For dread you'd leave me grieving

 

I've lately grown used to keeping

The hours that blackbirds keep

Awake by your side till dawn breaks

A condemned man waiting for sleep

 

On tenterhooks I just get by

Waiting for your decision

Blackbirds sing their songs

With exqu...

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My absent comrade

 

A fickle and inconstant friend,

of whom I rarely see enough.

It’s within you my dreams reside

but without you, I feel rough.

 

You’re absent when I need you most,

then sneak up on me, unexpected.

Can’t you see, you’re broken and disjointed

when I need you to be connected?

 

But if we weren’t to meet again

I doubt that I could I cope.

I ...

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                                 (This is my real curse)
Insomnia a horrid curse

can't sleep can't converse

everyone in the house well away

got to be up early as well today

insomnia had it all my life 

it sucks, I am tired that's life

wish I could close and drift away

awake all night till the break of day

hubby snores so loudly each night

to try and nod I fight and figh...

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It's all I can do
To sit up and gaze upon your beauty
As you lay there
Unaware
Your chest rising
Then falling
Once rugged hair now
glistening and twinkling
As the moonlight catches
And I sigh
You're in so deep now
The streaks of silken hair rise and fall
With every breath
I turn next to your face
Lined with the beauty of age
And wisdom
And stress
And I quietly observe
The flare o...

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As this first night knows me

as my soul becomes its dream

I understand my small being

is one with time's vast scream.

Even now I know between

my heart's first aspen flutter

and its last soft ashen beat

endless dark passions must clutter

my every empty lonely night

and bear down to hold my mind;

only this one moment knows a calm:  

a velvet dark - a fusty smell - fi...

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My time

Is not mine

But our time

You’ve made your bed in my dreams

I lie in it

But 

this isn’t me

See,

I would part with my skin

If it weren’t attached 

And never look back

But

Each night when I close my eyes for sleep

I see you in my head

Your feet poke out one side of your bed

And oh,

It makes me giddy for you

And so,

I end up crawling in bes...

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It was a strange

waking -

perhaps the wraith of a memory of a dream

lay with me,

offering some

hazed contentment

yet

a waking

knowing

the pillow

beside me

is

empty

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Is it a Curse .. or God's Grace 
To live alone heart and place 
Suffering what I always face 
Hopeless to be myself again 
 

Are these changes good for me 
To be lonely always or not to be 
To live away of what I see 
I lost my hope and brain 
 

Sadly to wake up and sleep 
Painful to feel yourself cheap 
Living alone hurts in deep 
I wish to know why, but i...

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In the frost sharp moonless night

the stars light the air

with a quiet and mystic brilliance

much closer than of yore

as a still quiet

blankets

the world below

 

Through the cold crystal dark night

a ghost drifts the grass

silent echo of a whispered flight

tree high above my eye

its soft locus

stalking

the land below

 

Through an ice star argent glea...

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I find myself yawning again and again, 
But I can't sleep, which is a real pain.
I lie on my left side, then on my right, 
But, for me, there is no sleep in sight.

Next, I turn and lie flat on my back, 
But, of any sleep, there is still a lack.
I lie there, looking up at the ceiling: 
Pretty drained, is how I am feeling.

I wish my system would just slow down, 
But, through my mind, th...

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Bedtime

 

Do you ever lie there at night,

With memories running through your mind

of times gone by, to come, to never be?

I heard meditation lets you slow these down,

See all of them at once or not at all,

To just be there - thoughts floating through your mind

like tiny boats sailing the wind in a breeze,

Peacefully gliding through your consciousness

Like a kite rippl...

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You have fallen asleep with the radio on.

 

Electromagnetic waves push inanities

into air that should at this time be only for breathing.

 

I lie and wait for the dull click

that will bring silence billowing down

onto your slumber and my wakefulness

 

knowing that the same sound, too soon

will tear me from the sleep

I should have accepted I needed

much earlier.

...

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Above The Light Of The Morning Star

 

Pity the dark eyed man who chases sleep.

Yet, pity more, the man who finds that realm

and dances with his friends, long gone,

then wakes to find such loneliness in his heart.

 

A father’s hand laid gently on his shoulder

or a mothers kiss to say farewell on leaving.

These are the magic lanterns

of the ghosts that are their ghosts.

...

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I am tired.

Tired of the moment my body urges me to go to bed.

I am tired.

Tired of lying here waiting for sleep to take over.

I am tired.

Tired of waiting and waiting and waiting...

I am tired.

Tired of suddenly waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to fall back asleep.

I am tired.

Tired of waking up in the morning and not being well rested.

I am so t...

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waking

in their bed

beneath the slates  

waking

as in a dream

slowly aware

waking

completely

waking

in the window airs

waking

in the hush

of the night

palely lit by her lucent light

the night

calls to him

and he walks out

the night

absorbs him

summer dew wet on his feet

her cool breath on his naked flesh

the quiet mysterious night

s...

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Let The Night Fall

 

Let the night fall and cover us

with heavy molasses sleep

that makes our bodies

sink into soft linen sheets.

 

Clouds of pillows

swirling round

our dream filled heads.

 

Let the night fall and still

the howling creatures

clawing at the doors

of our subconscious..

 

Folds of duvet

cushioning

the ravages of life.

 

Let ...

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Fighting this beast of sad mediocrity 

Gouging its eyes out to kill its soul 

Body racked with tempestuous anxiety 

Cannot sleep 

Pain of living 

Nothing but void  

A vacuum where nothing grows 

An empty space full of ideas going nowhere. 

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There's a ghost in my room
That sings me to sleep
Whispering in my ear
A sweet symphony

With a simple melody
That has a heart mending remedy
But the words that it sings
I can't remember for the life of me

The voice is familiar
But can't put it to a face
I remember something similar
When my mind was in a better state

All I can hope
Is that it never leaves
Because if it were to d...

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{When I Am A Sleep Or Awake} 

 

When I am a sleep or awake I dream of you all the same 

 

 

 

©Tina Glover All Rights Reserved/ One_Pissed_Off_American_Ghost_Writer Originally written in 2016 but posting here on February 15,2018 

 

 

 

​​​

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When the night doth come, weary follows distantly. 

Toiling farther from the dawn with each passing sunset, offers not the distraction so sought out by its woeful captor.

With worried mind and worried soul and yearning for slumber. Not for rest, but for release. 

Relentless is the repeat of ruminating reasoning. Soul wrenching speculation scews sensibility, until slowly and sluggishly sle...

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Everyone deserves a dream or two.

 

Sleeping in a Forest

 

Light and fire and music

all dance within me

in this perfect, silent forest

as she welcomes me to her breast,

full with fallen seeds and crinkled leaves

for my head; my bed of ashen river stones,

murmured possums, and repose. Long I slept

while overhead the white-hot starfields

bent to their nightly arcs...

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The Fact of no naps no snaps or snap backs

To wake you up from the fact you were never sleep

Can't sleep for the time you weep but seep

Into the fact that you can't sleep

Wanting to have dreams and past a test with ease

But I can't sleep

There has been a robbery where sleep doesn't reflect on eat

From the fact eat didn't take care of sleep

To where somebody has stolen eat a...

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Her eyelids finally met that night, as they were about to conceive that beautiful child called Sleep 

There was a rattle in her bones as the Sandman whispered in her ear

"There will be no rest for the wicked and the dammed, My Darling, My Dear.

So what the Hell are you doing here?"

She never slept again.

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I don't know what he's saying
But reality keeps fading
I see no sense in those speeches
Maybe because no word of his reaches
The spirit slips away
The sounds arround transform into waves by the bay
Am I dead yet ? I don't think so
It's my imagination that want's me to bow
Bow down from its power
like I am a little coward

 

I am asleep in a concious body

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We woke up 

You were smiling at me

You looked so unexpectedly happy

Wrapped my neck in your arms

Gave me a tight squeeze

I ask why

You won't reply

You never do

But that's the great thing

You don't have too

I already know what's held to be true

It doesn't have to be spoken

It doesn't have to be said

Yes, we might be in a little over our heads

Undoubtedly we...

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- For my sleeping Savannah.

 

Sleep my lovely, and dream my lovely.

Close your eyes and see, my lovely.

 

See the fifth dimension that has formed within you,

See the universe behind your eyes.

See the truth behind the lies, see the world without disguise.

 

- Stars dance, in a floating sway.

Creating a rip through the milky way.

Black holes begin to turn and swirl,

...

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As a new day dawns and I open my eyes

I look upon a world in painless surprise.

A smile creeps across my hopeful face

as I lie in bed, my comfy place.

 

A tentative move; a testing stretch but

then comes a cough and my face is etched

with pain, like a stalker in darkened streets

as I grudgingly rise to my unsteady feet.

 

Reaching to grab at the windowsill and

hold...

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