Welcome to the 5th Anniversary of the Poem of the Month.It’s hard to believe that the Poem of the Month launched five years ago this month with Gerald Manley Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur.” 61 poems later, I still love sitting down with a poetry book every month to select something that hopefully speaks to us all on some level. I thank you for allowing me to share this love of poetry with you.
Today marked the passing of one of the country’s true literary legends, John Updike. I hadn’t featured one of his works since September of 2004, when I shared his poem “The Angels” , so it seemed fitting to dedicate this month’s selection to Updike. I thought this particular poem appropriate to his passing – “…know we go to sleep less to rest than to participate in the twists of another world…”
I hope you enjoy this poem, as we welcome in a New Year, a New Government, a new hope just around the corner…
John Updike
(1932 – 2009)
Tossing and Turning
The spirit has infinite facets,
but the body confiningly few sides.
There is the left,
the right, the back, the belly, and tempting
in-betweens, northeasts and northwests,
that tip the heart and soon pinch circulation
in one or another arm.
Yet we turn each time
with fresh hope, believing that sleep
will visit us here, descending like an angel
down the angle our flesh’s sextant sets,
tilted toward that unreachable star
hung in the night between our eyebrows, whence
dreams and good luck flow.
Uncross your ankles.
Unclench your philosophy.
This bed was invented by others; know we go
to sleep less to rest than to participate
in the twists of another world.
This churning is our journey.
It ends,
can only end, around a corner
we do not know
we are turning.
