Last month my friend, Ed Kline, asked me to write a poem about sleep.  He has come to appreciate what a wonderful thing sleep is.  Ed even did some research to help me get started:  Morpheus is the god of sleep and it is from his name that we have the words morphine (a pain killer and perhaps sedative) and metamorphosis (change). 


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Sleep’s sedative sought Morpheus for change

And I, with dreams more real than my own life,

Had lost all sense of purpose, time, and place.

Thus, in the early morning’s dawn and light,

As slumber crept away, I found myself

A captive held between the two:  I knew

Myself as neither sleeping nor awake.

With fear that Morpheus’ change too swift would rend,

I asked the dawn’s new light to pause so that

I might emerge from sleep to wakefulness

Not suddenly nor swift but by a path

As gentle as the hand of God himself.

    But dawn would not relent; so I instead

    Rolled over with the sheets now on my head.

© 2014 Wayne Goodling