August 2, 2008 3:15 Experiment Poem: you can be dethroned by doubts

8/2/08 315am
writing at 315am is like nursing
having a nursing baby
with its own alarm clock
and there’s no shutting up
they both grow and grow
as you feed them
you become more attached
you fall more deeply in love
you don’t always appreciate them
the moment—the squealing child
the incessant insistent alarm
you can be dethroned
by doubts or accept
and move on which
allows much more sleep
just the process
it will be over already
appreciate it while it lasts
the challenges of
middle of the night
rousing are rewarded
in the end writing at 315
is like the bladder that
wakes you—you have to attend to it
it takes some training
and some discipline
we’d rather stay in the warm bed
we’d rather look at the
sky & blank & yawn
but you gotta go before
take the child in the night
before you have wet sheets
or ink
in the light of day
more is here
even for the child
or poem

Danika Dinsmore aka the Accidental Novelist, Tod McCoy (who blogs at todmccoy.com) and I submitted a collaborative 3:15 poem to a journal (here’s the draft of the stanza I put together) and then revised it again last week; now we are writing the poem on a pair of shoes to submit to the Farewell Bush Shoe Show! Submissions are due on Friday at 6pm; wish us luck on getting them from one country to to another and then across the country!

Working on this is inspiring me to FINALLY FINISH transcribing my 2008 3:15 poems and get them up on the 3:15 Experiment site SOON! ANd if you don’t know yet, the 3:15 Experiment is where writers around the world wake up at 315am their local time to write and then publish their 315am mind unedited…

Take a ride on the Poetry Train and see who else is aboard!

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