The hour from night to day.
The hour from side to side.
The hour for those past thirty.
The hour swept clean to the crowing of cocks.
The hour when earth betrays us.
The hour when wind blows from extinguished stars.
The hour of and-what-if-nothing-remains-after-us.
The hollow hour.
Blank, empty.
The very pit of all other hours.
No one feels good at four in the morning.
If ants feel good at four in the morning
–three cheers for the ants. And let five o’clock come
if we’re to go on living.
I’ve thought a lot about the above hour lately. At present I am managing to avoid it and if I do wake up then and can’t sleep I get up and have a hot drink or read something inspiring.
Isn’t it great how accepting challenge is often followed by discovery and inspiration. Yesterday I was having a few…challenges, so in an effort to brighten my day I started with the chocolate (sugar free of course) and then progressed to camomile tea before sitting down to a large bowl of pasta! As I ate I listened to a Ted talk. (If you’ve never done so I recommend you try it. There’s an inspirational talk on just about every topic you can think of. And they’re short and easy to listen to from my experience.)
At Ted.com I selected this link, charming talks for a boost on a bad day.
I chose a talk by the poet Rive. It was titled The Museum of Four in the Morning. It was in turn inspired by the above poem and was a lot of fun. Anyway for me the bonus was an introduction to a poet I’d never read; the Polish Nobel Prize winner Wislawa Szymborska.
What a wonderful find she was. Such a sense of humour she had.
And if you’re not headed for ted.com you might like to go to Tuesday Poem and catch up on what’s been happening among the faithful few who keep on posting.
gurglewords 