Stop all the clocks
This week’s poetry bus challenge offered several options and I sat musing about what is the first thing I experience when I wake up, or rather am woken up by my alarm, and it led me off at a bit of a tangent. The first line of Auden’s poem came into my head and became the title.
Stop all the clocks, shut off that incessant din
deliberately jarring to the dormant nerves,
like an infant’s urgent cry,
and dragging from the depths of sleep
reluctant slaves to time.
Curse the man who came up with the notion
that we should abandon natural rhythms
of waking when rested and sleeping when tired,
but instead be bound to mechanical devices
that count and dictate
our comings and goings
our ups and downs
our eatings and sleeping.
Curse that luminescent green
flashing from the corner in the dark
demanding your attention
smugly judging you for the dissipation of your life
as you try in vain
to cling to the vestiges of that haven
sleep.
ET said,
August 23, 2010 at 12:16 pm
You have so aptly described the “Morning Sleep”…
I really really liked it!
“vestiges of that haven sleep” lol!
Doctor FTSE said,
August 23, 2010 at 1:55 pm
A good idea to use another’s first line as a further prompt, and to work systematically through the ideas that flowed from there.
Pete said,
August 23, 2010 at 9:52 pm
I’m surprised there aren’t more anti-alarm-clock poems. This one oozes bile. Wonderful.
Peadar TotalFeckinEEjit O'Donoghue said,
August 24, 2010 at 12:26 am
I like this.And yes, we should sleep when we need it, not when a bloody clock tells us to.Let’s all start tomorrow.
Ps have you ever smashed an alarm clock with a baseball bat? I highly recommend it!
padhraig said,
August 24, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Hear, bloody Hear!
niamh b said,
August 24, 2010 at 6:57 pm
ah lovely stuff cfm, and a great idea to use that jumping off point
Argent said,
August 25, 2010 at 11:04 am
Absolutely right! Artifical light and alarm clocks should be banned!