August 6, 2010
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ElectricPoetry: To Sleep, perchance to dream
Perchance to Dream
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
8/04/10 6:12 a.m. pdtBack when the insomnial walls closed in tight
And pure restful sleep kept out of open sight
Preventing dreamlike slumber and healthy rest
My sanity forever put to the ultimate testNow I fall into a dark and warm abyss
And nighttime brings such feelings of still bliss
Hours underneath the cloak of repose streams
A steady vivid collection of dreams‘Twasn’t always such a wonder in the night
Eyes kept snapping open bright with sight
Relaxation seemed on the horizon far away
The horizon only brought the morning into playSleep comes so easy now, perhaps too easy
Sometimes before dark I fall into torpid trance
I promise myself It’s just a short nap I’m taking
And then the evening dreams begin their romanceRelaxing reveries constructed such worlds
long ago
worlds in which I find myself returning,
populated by old friends,
some who have passed into constant dreamland
and I always seem to be much younger
in my dreamsI might see you in my dreams
I might converse with and love
the girl in dreams, who
similarly
never ages and never forgets me
even though I never
“found”
her in life’s harsh atmosphereInsomnia and sleeplessness are forgotten forever
as my mind wanders and wonders and
wonderfully intersects with my dreamworlds
contructed of memories and wishes
populated by people I don’t know
and don’t want to forget
never seeming to begin or end
never seeming strange or frightening
never seeming different
as long as I remain relaxed
and sleepingI do not welcome the eternal sleep yet
but I embrace the sleep which seems
to last longer each evening
the sleep which triggers my dreams
those dreams which stayed away for years
as insomnia tricked the mind to wake
before the dreams could beginI will see you in my dreams
and my dreams shall never end“Insomniac Hours”
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
Monday, May 24th , 2004 : 7:30 p.m. pdt
red square numerals shining in the dark
10:00
closing eyes attempting rest
but the lids flicker
like the red square numerals
on my back,
cats cry in the night
soothing sounds like
cacophanous clatter
eyes open
red square numerals
11:00
shining
mocking, silently laughing,
piercing through my eyelids
up again,
to the bathroom,
dribbling
upset, awake, woozy
left side
right side
upside down
eyes open again
red square numerals shining in the dark
12:00
four more hours
the buzzer will ring
do I want those hours
to pass like this
?
the bathroom again
dribbling
dousing myself with water
from the tap
dare I drink a glass
?
back to the bed’s maw
open jaws nibbling at my sanity
red square numerals
silent but deadly
1:00
get to sleep goddammit
rock a bye baby
sighs escape like thundercracks
left, no right, no back, no front
can’t breathe right
can’t think straight
Is this a nightmare
Am I finally asleep
?
red square numerals shining in the dark
2:00
up again, open the door
the cats are running
around the living room
awake and having fun
I’m not
I’m dribbling again
back to bed
back to agony
red square numerals seemingly silent
yet bleeding like daggers
through my eyelids
shining
finally
falling
falling
away,
don’t know if I’m on my
side back or what
goodnight
something cries out in the
night
the cat scratches at the door
eyes awaken groggily
red square numerals shining
3:00
up, in the bathroom,
a regimented torture
a final ironic abusive moment
sleep finally arrives
as the buzzer sounds
4:00
red square numerals become the clarion
time to go to work.“24 HRS”.
Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
December 13, 1977 a poem, or it could be called that thank youone retire
two can’t sleep
three fitful, but finally
four plane carrying people I haven’t seen in
seven years – they speak to me
five I have an intensely satisfying
sexual experience with a stewardess
who looks a lot like Yvette Mimieux
six with bigger tits
seven go to the bathroom – too sleepy-forget
to flush the toilet
eight awaken – bathroom – smells like shit
nine fitful
ten put on glasses – cook (ha) breakfast
eleven read
twelve TV
thirteen TV
fourteen TV
fifteen TV
sixteen TV
seventeen cook (ha) dinner
eighteen call Morgan
nineteen buy beer
twenty PARTY
twenty-one PARTY
twenty-two PARTY
twenty-three PARTY
twenty-four PASS OUT
BEHIND THE POETRY: Since I wrote a poem this morning, I’m posting it to the blog. The theme of this post would be sleep and dreaming. I’ve posted backward, with the most current poem presented first. I’ve been sleeping better than I have in years, without the use of any drugs or other depressants. I hardly even drink liquor anymore, and if I do, it’s only on Friday nights. I guess as I age, I find the need for more “naps”. I don’t suffer from insomnia anymore, and my nights seem to begin earlier and earlier each year. I don’t know if this is a good thing, but I enjoy the chance to fall into deep sleep, something which eluded me for many years. I’m dreaming again, too, and I sometimes visit the “places” I’ve been in dreams from long ago. I always say that I believe dreams are merely a portal into the Universal Mind, and sometimes we might indeed be touching the subconscious of other denizens of the Universal while we dream, both alive and gone. I kinda like the fact that I don’t seem to be bothered with aging. I’ve also posted a poem about insomnia I wrote in 2004 and an early poem from 1977 diagramming one of my days when I was somewhat alcoholic. There are only two months left in which my AllThingsMike and ElectricPoetry websites will be online. I have to stop the subscription renewal to save some money. So if you like my poetry, visit ElectricPoetry now before it’s too late. Most of my poems are posted there in chronological order. There are about a thousand poems on the site. My Xanga blog will stay online, and there is a “poetry” tag here on the blog as well. MFN/ppfPosted: August 04, 2010 7:04 AM
Comments (17)
I always enjoy your poetry. I’ll have to check out that site!
I love the first 3 stanzas of the first poem, they reminded me of the more classical, old-school type poetry–loved the the flow of the words and rhyme.
I liked the second one too, the passing of time stream; I’ve written a couple similar types of my own. It’s like you can feel the time ticking by as you read it.
And, well, the third poem made me laugh; and I do like the unique format of it
Amazing poem and imagery! Also like the picture if the ship approaching impending doom!
Hey Michael! Glad to see you’re still writing new poems. They were fantastic. Right now I’m in the midst of cleaning my apartment, but earlier I got some time to read them. I liked the bittersweet tones of the first one, but really loved the formatting and wordplay of the third one. I’ll write more later, because I really liked these.
you are so creative!
Good ones, as usual, Michael. I enjoy reading them.
My favorite of the three would be most recent on sleeping. I love sleeping and dreaming, too. I just don’t remember my dreams or sometimes remember only a slice of one. When I took a course in Dream Psychology at local community college years ago, I learned about universal symbols in dreams (concept of Carl Jung). I dreamed a lot more then. My favorite ones were flying dreams. It’s true, dreams are what our subconscious is working on and generally relate to what is going on in our lives.
Insomnia is a bummer, and it’s good that you’re not having that problem anymore.
~~Blessings ‘n Cheers
The people who can write poetry amaze me. I just don’t have that talent!
I read the first one very carefully. I thought that would be better than skimming the entire blog. It was pretty cool. I like the part where you always seem young in your dreams and your soulmate does too. I feel lucky that I got a glimpse of my real soulmate within the last decade anyway, and vice versa. We don’t want any extreme shocks in the highly unlikely even that our paths will ever cross again in this lifetime. (He looked just the same and he also still had wine on his breath).
Hey, Dude… insomnial ?
Is that a word, or is that poetic license?
Hey, you wrote a new style of poem…first it always rhymes, then it never rhymes!
@webofsimplicity - Dear Web, 1st 3 stanzas of “Perchance to Dream” are written in AABB rhyme, probably the most common form of rhyming. I have written poems using many different rhyme schemes, including internal rhyme, where each line has words which rhyme.
@xThexGodfatherx - Dear Mike, The composite image I used as the header is a mixture of one of my cloud photos and a “fantastic” image I stole from the web. The ship originally was to have fallen off the edge of the earth, but in the composite, it will settle on the “ocean of clouds”. I figured this was the best of my ElectricPoetry headers to use for an entry about dreams.
@RazielV - Dear Scott, The only new poem is the first one. The others were written in 2004 and 1977. I’m trying to remember to pen at least one poem a month. I’ve been writing them since 1967 and since then, there have been four or five years where I haven’t written at all, but I average about 20 pieces a year, and have written up to a 100 in a year or more.
@hesacontradiction - Dear Ann, You can imagine that when I was a young boy writing poetry it wasn’t too popular. Now on the internet so many write what they say is “poetry” but a lot of it isn’t artistic.
@Diva_Jyoti - Dear Allison, Yes, I used a bit of poetic license with ‘insomnial” turning the word into an adjective. I’ve been writing poetry for so long that I frequently vary my styles, and inject one style into another. When I imagined “Perchance to Dream” (title comes from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, natch) the poem didn’t rhyme at all, but it began to rhyme when I started writing it. I vary from AABB in the first 3 stanzas, then switch to ABAB, and then dispense with the rhyme altogether. I sometimes will add a rhyming couplet to a blank verse or free verse poem at the end or in a refrain for impact, but my “trademark” isn’t necessarily rhyme, but alliteration, which shows up in “Perchance to Dream” in at least four places.
I marvel at the talents of people like you that make xanga an adventure!
I appreciate so much your sharing your poem with me today. It has so much meaning in it!
Yes, I have been around for awhile here on xanga and used to post every day, now not as often but getting back into it…Fridays are my “Funnies” feature…good to meet up with you again!
Blessings,
Mike
You might check out this delicious article on naps: also (same link) http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/30/napping.benefits.realsimple/index.html In the meantime, I’m reflecting on your somewhat melancholic perspective on sleep and life. ‘Tis the artist’s natural temperament, to be sure
I’m so glad you have written more!
I love the first two – beautiful and chilling and filled with nostalgia.
The one’s pain is another’s gain. At least if you can not sleep you are writing and posting it on Xanga…so we benefit.
These are really good. I wish I could write poetry this good.
I have often wished I could draw pictures with words but the muse(s) didn’t endow me with that talent, nor music, nor art, but instead blessed me with the heart of a mom, an open mind, and a willingness to help. I am glad she gave you the talent of word pictures for us all to enjoy. ~ mom
On Perchance to Dream:
I love the constantly changing rhyme scheme throughout. There were even a few parts that seemed to transition into free verse and transition right back without any stumbling. My absolute favorite stanza is this one:
“Insomnia and sleeplessness are forgotten forever
as my mind wanders and wonders and
wonderfully intersects with my dreamworlds
contructed of memories and wishes
populated by people I don’t know
and don’t want to forget
never seeming to begin or end
never seeming strange or frightening
never seeming different
as long as I remain relaxed
and sleeping”
The reason being the slight alliterations at the beginning with the w’s and p’s, almost too subtle to pick up on, but it made me want to re-read it in order to ponder what made me like it so well. Then the repetition of “never seeming” towards the end adding a heightened sense of passion from the writer.
A very well written poem, Mike. I truly enjoyed it, sir.
The lot you utter is true, I imagine therefore
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