Friday, May 8, 2015

A Wake

When you go to bed to sleep,
don’t right away fall away

but remain awake in some 
meditative state enough

to refrain from unconscious
sway . . . then you may soon enough

begin to feel relaxed but
not drowsy, not so lousy

that you have to close the eyes
altogether, so you leave 

eyes ajar to stay alert
like Bert on Sesame Street.

If you can do just this much, 
then you can close the eyes and 

at once stay awake enough
to watch the mind wandering

wondering what the deal is . . .
do I shut down now or do

I go with the brain: remain
active and notice what’s next? 

Remain passively active
just long enough to welcome

that first dream of the evening . . .
and if that does not wake you 

up, just wait for waking down 
where deep sleep shows you a corpse.

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