Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Bedtime Delaying Tactics

I'm sure you've noticed how adept children are at employing myriad devices for this activity, but who'd have thought that a computer could have similar wily ways? My hand was geared up to get Mouse to hover and click Shut Down last night, when the computer chimed in " Oh, no you don't! I need one more effort before I'll let you do anything as boring as go to bed."

I am such a slave to its demands, that I obediently opened a new page, and let the fingers start dancing one last tarradiddle. So here is the layout of the choreography as described by their steps...

Obeying The Call

It's late at night
the muse is right;
"Go To Bed
Sleepy Head!"
She shouts aloud
into the crowd.
I heed her call,
my eylids fall.

But where is sleep?
I count the sheep;
but, wide awake
the numbers make
my brain revolve,
and I resolve
to never let
the tally get
the better of me...
Snore...
snore...
zzzz...
see?!

18 comments:

  1. Love the poem! I think the later Amy goes to bed the bigger girl she feels, if that makes sense. I must admit, I've been delaying bedtime myself recently because the best programs on the telly are on late at night!

    CJ xx

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  2. I recognise that Mouse - must be related to my touch pad. I suppose the offspring of a mouse and a touch pad would be a touse.

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  3. There, you see, the computer knew best - it knew you had one more poem in you before bedtime!

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  4. jinksy i bet you compose poems in your sleep that reemerge days, months, even years later without you're knowing where they came from!!! steven

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  5. My "instant poem of the day" is in the comments section over at Yorkshire Pudding's blog in response to one of his own in his post of 16 August.

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  6. Enjoy your light rhythms which are enough to create bliss for sleep.

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  7. One must always answer the call, Jinksy!

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  8. I've heard we all return to our childhood eventually... ;-)

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  9. Love it Jinksy, theat muse sometimes will not let us go to sleep - I count sheep and he is throwing words at them....but I slept good last night and today that muse is up and ready to go....blessings..bkm

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  10. Dear Pen,
    counting sheep is almost as exhausting as constructing rhyme schemes, metres etc - it keeps you wide awake!
    "Come, Sleep; O Sleep! the certain knot of peace.
    The baiting-place of wit, the balm of woe,
    The poor man's wealth, the prisoner's release,
    Th' indifferent judge between the high and low; (...)
    as your poet Sir Philip Sidney put it so beautifully.
    Or more profane: A woman needs her beauty sleep!

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  11. Not so very different from falling asleep in front of the TV programme you particularly wanted to watch!

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  12. So, to write poetry I just open up word and a click of the mouse lands me safely on a rhyming spree? Can't be that easy.

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  13. Yes, it is true that we can be very tired when we want to stay up but as soon as we get to bed, sleep evades us. That happened to me last night, funnily enough. I was watching that lovely programme about the Normans, but I couldn't keep my eyes open. It was so interesting too! Finally, I went to bed, yawning, but guess what? as soon as my head hid the pillow I was awake and I swear I saw the clock go round each hour. So annoying. Glad you liked my fruit cake.
    Blessings, Star

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  14. You can only stay awake so long and then you have to catch some ZZZZZs. Sometimes my mind just will not turn off and I get back up and work an hour on the computer till I can go to sleep.

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  15. hi from me in london jinksy, i see you are in the uk too.you sent tessa that wonderful pressie, and i would so like to send her a card... do you have her address for me? my e mail is: jossross@yahoo.com

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  16. ..my computer does have to seem the same kind of bedtime delaying tactics....

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  17. Loved it Penny. I found myself reading it aloud and faster towards the end. It was fun. - Dave

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  18. We need to feed that mouse one last morsel.
    Beautifully rhymed! :-)

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