INSOMNIAC’S BOOK OF HOURS

10 PM

Reading in bed

Nodding like a bobble-head figure  

Winter cat on a cold tin roof

Banging the ceiling with a broom

Possum scurries off and cat yowls

(And yowls)

11 PM

Across the road

Lone drummer banished to his shed

All those riffs in his head

Sleeping time begins

12 AM

Lunar lunch for a colicky baby

Midnight mom pushing pram through sand

I déjà vu this neighbor’s desperation

1 AM

Cherry bomber lurking in the next door swamp

My dogs hide under the bed and shake

I go pee, resisting the impulse to see

Who does this

Badly wanting to shout

Like some crazy old lady

Instead, I play my ukulele

And the dogs calm to “When Will I Be Loved?”

2 AM

Sleepless with a Kindle

Reading four different books

Playing solitaire

Checking out FB and Email

3 AM

Swallow another acetaminophen

But tossing continues in between

Chewing baby aspirin

Dogs back in bed trying to steal my pillow

Anxiety makes the heart grow faster

And I hear its erratic beat

As the window air con grinds on…and on…

4 AM

Standing on stage making my grateful Grammy acceptance speech…NO

Standing in a Vegas wedding chapel with the most perfect man….NO

Jet-setting with the beautiful people…UGH

All the fantasies in the world won’t put me to sleep

Because my real fantasy is to sleep

Perchance to dream (sorry, Shakespeare)

5 AM

Studying the setting moon

Dawn just waiting to color the gray curtain

THUNK

Out ‘til

7 AM

Wow! Slept an entire two hours!!!

<><><><><>

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE:  Time charms

MUCH ADO ABOUT SOMEONE <3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE! HERE ARE 2 POEMS I WROTE FOR HIM OVER THE YEARS:

<3<3<3<3<3

SHAKESPEARE BIRTHDAY SONNET, APRIL 23, 1564

<3<3<3<3<3

(USING THE FIRST LINES OF HIS SONNETS)

<3<3<3<3<3

#60 Sin of self-love possesseth all mine eye
#88 When thou shalt be disposed to set me light
#66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
#80 O, how I faint when I of you do write.

#139 O, call not me to justify the wrong
#150 O, from what power hast thou this powerful might
#100 Where art thou, Muse, that thou forget’st so long
#28 How can I then return in happy plight

#43 When most I wink, then do mine eyes best see
#66 Tired with all these, for restful death I cry
#52 So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
#115 Those lines that I before have writ do lie

#56 Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
#71 No longer mourn for me when I am dead

© 2014 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja) and William Shakespeare

“THE UNCERTAIN GLORY OF AN APRIL DAY…”

<3<3<3<3<3

In cold country I sadly plucked the lute
Shining in England, you the rising son {sun}
Seeking me in verse, yet remaining mute
Why don’t you know we are meant to be one

Oh, dear Will, you were fated to be mine
Although centuries separate us now
Twin souls formed by a heavenly design
Calling your name, but me you disavow

Yet I’ve glimpsed your soul somewhere in my space
Perhaps in a yellow striped bumble bee
And though you changed I recognize your face
But stung by your insensitivity

Wading through tears, my grief so prodigious
We’ve lost so much, love now sacrilegious

<3<3<3<3<3

(c) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

(Title from Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona)

IMAGES not properly attributed from Google Images.

The cartoon is from Pop Sonnets Blog 416 Collins Language

<3<3<3<3<3

PINK ORACLES

Oracles in pink

Lazily dancing

To cold front

Wind force

Dogs dozing

In dirt

My mind drifts

As I watch the

Bobbing of

Pink, plastic heads

And I think

Will I be able to sustain

Good health this

Second year of the plague?

And one flamingo’s head

Nods up and down

Then I think

That’s a”yes”

Hmmm, let me test this

And I think

Will my latest song

Win a Grammy?

And one flamingo’s head

Adamantly moves

Left, Right, Left, Right

That’s a “no”

I say

Just like the days

I used a pendant

To see what gender

My unborn babes

Would be

So these

Presents from

A dear friend

These oracles in disguise

Transcend the

Whimsical function

Of lawn decoration

At least for believers like me…

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Pink Oracles

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

GARGOYLES: NOT JUST A WATER DIVERTER

Ruled by rainwater

Fashioned to protect

Centuries of roof guttering

Until poetic souls saw us

As we really are

Fierce, fighting,

Fine monsters

Holding off the

Fiends and demons

Devilishly clever

But not against us

Made of stone

Long throats to swallow rain

And the better to seize all

Who threaten the structures

We squat upon

All who attack

Learn to fear us

Including our cousin the dragon

For small is diligent, invisible

Small is a game changer

In this microcosmic world of danger…

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Small Gargoyles, Big Job

FIGHT OR FLIGHT (SONG-IN-PROGRESS)

I wake to agitated daylight

Sympathetic darkness

Disappears like a fallen blanket

Groping for the comfort of softness

Finding nothing but dead air

Now I see

All is bright, harsh, visible

How I long for the night

<><><><><> 

Crossroads leading this- and that-a-way

Lead me to the horizon of sight

So I might see the truth again

<><><><><> 

Something happened

On the verge of tears

Every afternoon

But wouldn’t bend my head

Instead, searched for the garden gate

To make an escape

From the futile feeling of

Fright

<><><><><> 

Crossroads leading this- and that- a-way

Lead me to the horizon of sight

So I might see the truth again

<><><><><> 

Night projection into

Rock salt country

Spread like white sand

Ocean wind

Evaporating, creating

Sea salinity for

Weeping wounds

Wronging what is right

<><><><><> 

Crossroads leading this- and that- a-way

Lead me to the horizon of sight

So I might see the truth again

<><><><><> 

Let me live in the three o’clock hour

Amid the night blooming flower

Of my newest reality

All seems stagnant

At that time

But dreamy mise en scenes

Unfreeze us to decide

On fight or flight…

<><><><><> 

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Salt Flat & Guitar

IT ALL ENDS IN “E”

How can it be?

73?

Honestly

I am glad I have a magic mirror

Myopic? So happy

Because to me

I still look nowhere near

What I am supposed to be

Sleep-deprived eyes

Larger dress size

O! Let’s forget and go back to

Rhyming in “E”

Because also soul-celebrating is

Leonardo DaVinci

Born 4-15 in Italy

How cool it would be

To talk to mystical he

Ah, well, woe is me

Only one thing left to see

The aging C

Playing Happy Birthday

On my ukulele…

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE:  CS 2021 BIRTHDAY

TANKA (STIMMING)

(scroll down for YouTube video)

Autistic stimming*

Comforting in my old age

Smoke on the Water

Deep Purple’s magical riff

Da, da, da, da, da, da, da….

*If you’ve ever tapped your fingers against a counter while you were waiting, congratulations, you’ve stimmed. Autistic people tend to stim more often and more intensely. Stimming helps us process the sensory input we’re gathering, stay calm and grounded in an overwhelming universe, and express joy, distress, or whatever we might be feeling.— Julia Bascom

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE & VIDEO: DEEP PURPLE, SMOKE ON THE WATER

YouTube https://youtu.be/zUwEIt9ez7M

BEDTIME THOUGHT

Lying alone in lacy black

Looping thoughts of you

While wild wind and rain

Shadow the starlit sky

Wondering about the lucky lady

Luxuriating in your languid love…

© 2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Moon Appreciation Society

BLACK MULBERRY (MORUS NIGRA)

Happy Birthday Shakespeare, April 23rd

See my tree after 6 years!

❤ ❤ ❤

Like Shakespeare’s

Pyramus and Thisbe

I wait for you under

The Mulberry tree

Fingers stained with

Sweet red juice

Not blood like his

Star-crossed lovers

But when you do not appear

I understand

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The play within a play

I understand…

❤ ❤ ❤

©2021 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGES: CS in 2015 with mulberry plant/mulberry 6 years later as tree