Day 24

Finally, here is our (optional) prompt for the day! In her poem, “The Flying Nightdress,” Mandakranta Sen describes something fantastical and strange that occurs while the rest of the world is asleep. The imagery of the poem is dreamlike, but the situation it describes is otherwise presented quite straightforwardly. Today, we challenge you to write your own poem that takes place at night, and describes something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice.

Sleep itself is magical and strange and it happens when we are not awake to notice!

The Miracle of Sleep

The miraculous dreams

while reason sleeps

and shows the heart

what the mind missed today.

The body rests in deepest ease

slowing systems down

cooling

stabilizing

regulating heart rate

and blood pressure

falling into restorative harmony and peace.

Meanwhile the miraculous unbidden

bolsters the immune system

firing up the waste disposal

to remove toxins

as micro nurses repair tissue,

build muscle and release growth

in an unaware anatomy.

Diligently the hippocampus files away

all the fragments of precious waking moments of you

consolidating memories into long term storage

preparing the processing, the bold filter-less

state of dreaming

when brain reawakens and

watches over a paralysed form

as it toys with the memories, experience and fears

explores the desires, joys

and the not-yet-known

or not-yet-resolved

aspects of yesterday,

ready to waken

refreshed, healed, fully charged

for the miraculous possibilities of today.