Deep Sleep or Sleeplessness?

A flock of sheep that leisurely pass by
One after one; the sound of rain, and bees
Murmuring; the fall of rivers, winds and seas,
Smooth fields, white sheets of water, and pure sky –
I’ve thought of all by turns, and still I lie
Sleepless…

William Wordsworth, “To Sleep”

While William Wordsworth writes about sleeplessness… the last few nights I have slept so deeply that when I awake I have remembered the most vivid dreams. In my dreams, which are always in color, people are having conversations, traffic is going by, things are happening. They seem to be not disconnected but real stories. People say dreams are only interesting to you. But often my dream world ends up in my writing especially my poetry. I have never been able to capture much in my journals but the ones I have written about seem to be much more connected to my subconscious than my current writing.

In rereading Bernadette Mayer’s epic poem Midwinter Day this morning, maybe because its so hot this week I think that reading about a Midwinter Day will cool me off… I find this wonderful passage that seems to be tapping into this sort of subconscious writing.

“The bed is like a typewriter, sometimes I think the bed’s a refrigerator with the holographic head of a man in dichroic color to be seen in ambient light on the door, I mean the cover of the book the bed is, you do look all the time at some of the same things until the names of objects might as well fall off”

This morning take some time to write about sleep or the lack of sleep as Wordsworth so eloquently does. How does sleep figure into your writing? Do you write better or more interesting with no sleep, does your dream world find its way into your writing? What does a good night’s sleep do for your creativity?

Now get back to work!

Lovingly,
The Writing Nag

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