It’s Almost August: Time Once Again for the 3:15 Poetry Experiment!

In 1993, Danika Dinsmore aka The Accidental Novelist was working with Bernadette Meyer at Naropa and they decided to do a poetry experiment writing at 3:15am to see what the writing would be like when you’re in a hynopompic/hypnogogic state. A few other students were invited and the 3:15 Experiment was born. It’s now 17 years old and I am inviting you to participate in this year’s experiment! If you’re on facebook, you can fan the page and sign up for the event or sign up on the 3:15 website.

Above is a video of the 3:15am poem posted below and here’s a link to another 3:15 poem about writing at 3:15. There’s lots of 3:15 Experiment poems on this blog as well as a thorough collection at the 3:15 Experiment site. If you like to read and own books, and not just read poetry online, Danika and I edited a 3:15 Experiment book, between sleeps with poems from 24 poets from around the world who wrote from 1993-2005.

3:15am Weds Aug 10, 2005

this writing practice
in the middle of the
night
at 315
is a lesson in
impulse

this is not a time to
think so hard but of
first thoughts not
thoughts on thoughts

at 315 in the morning
you’re too sleepy to
bother to do anything
else–and if you
do think too hard
casting about your mind
searching for something
to write about
rejecting this idea and that

you will be up for
too long
you will never get
any sleep

you will never
catch any poems
either

For more poetry, most written when awake, jump on the Poetry Train!

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