What to Remember When Waking
I try not to put demands on the day
or dictate my thoughts
I don’t want the first thing I remember
to be the last thing I worried about last night
I make a choice to wake up
or fall back to sleep
Fragmented dreams
offer no depth of meaning
to fill the surrounding silence
I look out the window
remember the poetry of a gray day
I think about my favorite box of Yorkshire Gold tea
and how it is almost empty
_______________________
~ Colleen Redman 1/22/12
Note: The above title is borrowed from a question posed by poet David Whyte and is the title of a poem he wrote. More dVerse poetry HERE.
January 22nd, 2012 3:32 pm
Good Insight in this poem! xo
January 22nd, 2012 6:33 pm
Hi Colleen — I’m planning on participating in the Annual Cyberspace Poetry Slam for Brigid on February 2nd and would love to post your poem “Full Moon Insomnia” on my blog that day to celebrate the Goddess of Poetry. May I have your permission to do so? I will include full accreditation to you and a link to your blog.
January 22nd, 2012 6:49 pm
Yes, Debra. That would be an honor and I look forward to seeing it posted.
http://looseleafnotes.com/wp/2007/03/full-moon-insomnia/
January 22nd, 2012 7:55 pm
Thank you, Colleen! I appreciate receiving your permission.
I read the poem years ago in either a We’Moon date book or in a Lunar Calendar (the one “dedicated to the Goddess in Her many guises”) — can’t remember which, but I see in your link that you originally published it in We’Moon so that must be it! I liked it so much I filed it away with other favourite poems.
January 23rd, 2012 1:54 pm
today i remembered that i could be happy by tsking care of the simple things.
this was clear to me after a dream where i was able to give a small child a penny
it was a day where a penny could still be traded for a simple pleasure.
now i’m happy playing simple games with two young boys. joeyk
January 23rd, 2012 2:02 pm
Joe, I dreamt that the copperhead came back to life only it was a woman and I couldn’t and didn’t want to kill it. I made everyone put shoes on because it was in the house!
You have to log in as yourself!
January 24th, 2012 4:52 pm
I feel this poem says something very worthwhile – I will try to remember it in my own way tomorrow morning!
January 24th, 2012 5:29 pm
A wonderful word weave. The poetry of simplicity when we let our mind let go our worries. Lovely pacing and a wonderful read a loud.
January 24th, 2012 6:45 pm
better go get some more tea for your reading tonight…ha…nice…remembering the poetry of a greay day…there is peace in this verse…i like…
January 24th, 2012 7:19 pm
It’s so hard to be in the present rather than worrying about the future or trying to recreate something pleasant from the past. I try not to fill the first moments of the day with that but the tea is desire and the almost empty box is the worry. Or am I the box of tea almost empty … or trying to be.
January 24th, 2012 8:37 pm
Love those last lines. They bring the poem together so well, and remind me of university, when all I drank was Yorkshire tea. Good times.
And great poetry here.
January 24th, 2012 9:41 pm
I try not to put demands on the day
or dictate my thoughts
Wise words…giving yourself freedom to live today, in the moment!
January 24th, 2012 11:55 pm
This was positively heavensent. Thank you, from a chronic worrier-upon-rising.
January 26th, 2012 10:41 am
[…] the future or trying to recreate something pleasant from the past, which is the reason I wrote THIS […]
January 28th, 2012 1:18 pm
I enjoyed the duality you have captured in this piece, lovely ~ Rose
February 22nd, 2012 7:57 pm
Each of the lines feel infused by an invisible “but…” at the end… Implicit in the title is the conscious effort or wishing of it all….the tea supply may be running low, but ahhh the journey in the drinking of it.