Poem 200

This is a lovely thing, the whole poem capturing through metaphor the moment of falling asleep …

… some of the idea comes from a D.H. Lawrence poem in a 70s university English textbook I still have …

( I love the echo of willow and yellow, the turned leaves, black velvet jeweller’s lining eyes, the lusciousness in the mouth of the line the jaw joined the water, the gold chain wobbling into darkness … another written-in-1984 poem not valued enough in the rush of that year … )

Sleep

A snake drank at the pool
swaying above the surface
sipping
its thin length more supple
than the willow it hung from
and as yellow
as the turned leaves

its tongue flickered on the water
the pale perfect head
wavering back and forth
then silently
one black velvet jeweller's lining eye
shut
and the other
the jaw joined the water
almost without a ripple
the snake slid into the pool

for a moment
there was a gold chain
wobbling away into darkness
then nothing
an insect dropped weightlessly
on the eyelid of water
threadlike legs buckling
stuck fast
in sleep's gravity