Insomnia,
thou art my bedfellow.
You joust to slay my sleep,
pummel me with dire near-dozing dreams.
I succumb,
not to rest, but to rise instead.
Darkness turns light,
switch slapped by frustrated hand.
Insomnia,
thou art the victor
and I,
your bleary-eyed spoils.
I’m hosting Quadrille Monday at dVerse, the virtual pub for poets. The prompt word is “spoil” – or any form of the word. Quadrille: a poem of exactly 44 words, sans title. Pub opens at 3 PM Boston time – come join us! Image from Pixabay.com
lillian the home poet 
Oh, I feel so sorry for you if this written for 1st-hand experience. I had a small dose of it once, and wouldn’t wish it on anyone.
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I am occasionally hit with this….and this poem was written at some ungodly hour when I was indeed jousting with a restless knight! My heart goes out to people who have this continually – it sure affects how you meet the next day!
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You capture it well, that nightly (knightly) jousting. “switch slapped by frustrated hand” – oh yeah!
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Glad you enjoyed…..oh yeah! 🙂
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I usually have no difficulties falling asleep… but often I wake at 5 AM… insomnia is not a victor you want in your house.
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You’ve got that right! Insomnia, be gone!
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I’m the same as Bjorn – no trouble falling asleep – I’m usually out like a light – but any tiem from about 4.30 to 6 am I’m awake and can’t get back to sleep, I like the description of insomnia jousting and pummeling!
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When it strikes, I do feel like I’m jousting with it! 🙂
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Know the feeling.
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😦
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Ah, insomnia, I know you well. You capture the frustration very well.
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It really is frustrating, right? Doesn’t happen to me too often…but when it does I toss and turn and the jousting is on!
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What a fun take on insomnia. I have suffered from it for years often getting about 4 hours of sleep per night. I wish I could pummel my insomnia!
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Think of it as your knight in shining armor visiting you….alas, unwanted guest as he is! Glad you enjoyed my post!
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Hi Lillian, Rob Kistner here. Please forgive my contacting you this way, but I didn’t know how else to let you know I messed up #14 on MisterLinky today. I was enter my link and accidentally entered the url where my name should have been. To make matters worse, it links to the wrong poem. I corrected it on #15 of MisterLinky, so if you would be so gracious as to remove #14, my blunder will be eliminated. I am so very sorry for my mess up Lillian… 😦
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Not to worry, Rob. As you’ll see by my comments on both posts, I enjoyed both of them…but did delete the one that was not a quadrille. So – it’s all taken care of. And glad you posted here!
PS: No problem at all…so no need for apologies. Just glad you enjoyed the prompt and posted to it! 🙂
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Loved your poem here Lillian, great frustration in the write! Unfortunately, I can relate. I am, and have been an insomniac for 7 years… 😐
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ohhhhh….Insomnia, thy alias is Evil One! It does strike me every once in a while….and then I pay for it dearly the next day. 7 years of it? You have my deepest concern…..ugh.
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Part of my life now. I take so many meds for my heart failure, HBP, diabetese, depression, and neuropathy that my sleep patterns are a disaster. I do get exhausted after several days, the crash usually lasts for 12+ hours. Ambian does nothing for me. But hey, I get a lot of writing done…
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Such gorgeous phrasing in this one, Lillian ❤️ Especially like; “Bleary-eyed spoils” an apt description for us late night owls 😊
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Ah yes….night owls by choice or by jousting with Insomnia!
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My sympathies, you’ve captured what this is like perfectly. I don’t know if I just dream a lot, but the line ‘dire near dozing dreams’ really struck a chord. Whenever I’m under the weather, I find it tricky to fall asleep fully, instead I sleep in fits and starts where I’m often half away, but dreaming at the same time. Very odd and very off putting.
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Exactly! You’ve expressed it well….and those near dozing dreams can be real doozies…ones you want to escape from!
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Insomnia is nobody’s friend; I have it once in awhile–but a few months ago, while being depressed by my ill health, and being housebound, I had a bout that lasted for a month straight. I started hallucinating before getting some meds to snap me out of it.
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Oh yes…..insomnia plays havoc with the mind. Sleep is definitely a necessessity to a healthy mind.
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very apt description of one’s battles with that foul prince who spoils sleep
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LOVE your comment here! 🙂
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Whether yours or your poetic voice’s bane, it rings so universally that it matters not. A sleepless knight. A night of sleeplessness. Great!
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Thanks, Charley. Just every once in a while this happens to me….and it did the night I wrote this post! Glad you enjoyed.
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Enjoyed it and have lived it. My insomnia isn’t often so action-packed. Port helps sometimes.
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Gallant word choices for your ‘knight’ who rescues not! Love the impact of the slapped switch – that one rings so terribly true. Painfully fun read!
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Glad you enjoyed, Jilly. Feels good to be writing again…was MIA for a bit but I think the creative muse sometimes needs to sleep as well! 🙂
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My muse has taken an extended leave of absence!
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Nice line: “pummel me with dire near-dozing dreams.”
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Thanks, Frank. Tried to get the pummeling sign in the repetition of the “d” sound. 🙂
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Great. Love that use of spoils, and how spoiled your day ahead. The night-errant metaphor worked well! Hope you can get a knight”s sleep! 😀
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Ah yes….much rather have my spouse of 49 years be the only knight in my night! 🙂
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So wonderfully written!! I have been there myself.. especially slapping the light switch… although quietly so as to not wake others including the dog! 🙂
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Hah! Glad you enjoyed. This only happens occasionally…but it can truly be frustrating and when I finally give in to that knight I’m jousting with, I do turn out the lights with a bit of venom in my mind! 🙂
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What a rogue knight Insomnia is indeed. This is a delightful work.
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Rogue knight indeed! Much rather have my spouse of 49 years be the only knight in my bed at night! 🙂
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This is a lot of fun…right down to the bleary eyed spoils! JIM
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Glad you enjoyed! 🙂
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I think insomnia is two sided, one is sleep deprivation and not being very creative, the other is being focused and doing a lot of work.
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I agree…..sometimes one can get a lot of work or writing or tasks done in the middle of the night when there are no interruption….but the bleary eyes are still the result the next day…and a muddled mind….at least for me.
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Lillian, are you accepting the poems that are over the 44 word limit for a quadrille? Just curious. I have commented that these poems do not meet the criteria for the 44 word limit
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No. I’ve written a reply to two that appeared yesterday (Tuesday), telling them why they were being deleted and inviting them to write another one that meets the criteria. Both apologized and one already did a second; the other is submitting another today (Wednesday). That said, I haven’t counted every word – but you can usually tell. I can go back and count each one – suppose I should. In the past, have also nicely deleted (after explaining why and inviting another), for not including prompt word etc.
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A good antidote is to count sheep, for some reason I always am asleep just as I get to 44th lil lambkin… sleep 💤
Excellent poem, vivid and true. Excellent prompt too. 🙂
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Love that adage of counting sheep….for me, when Insomnia strikes (which is rarely — but it does happen), all that happens when I do that is that the sheep Baaaa loudly and some clumsy ones trip over the fence they’re trying to leap over!
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Dern undulating ungulates!
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I like the wordplay and other poetic jousting in this.
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Thanks, Janice. The first rendition of this in my journal had no word play….my editing and looking more closely, yep – in the middle of the night – made the knight come about! 🙂
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It must be the shining armour that eludes our sleep. I relate so well!
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Yes indeed. Sir Insomnia comes rarely here…but when he does, it is truly frustrating!
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Oh so true! I too have had many a battle with insomnia. What a great poem Lillian! 🙂💕 Zzzzzz
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Glad you enjoyed! Love that zzzzzzzz……..
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Perfectly captured in 44 words, I know this all too well.
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Yep — first rendition of this post was written….you guessed it…in the middle of the night. Two days later, went back to my journal and my very scraggly handwriting, and rewrote to add the knight and some jousting too! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed.
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Oh, those nights spend’s tossing and turning- well done Lillian!
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Girl, I feel this.
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oh those dire, near dozing, dreams -that’s about when I bag it and get up. Perfect description and nice alliteration too!
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Insomnia isn’t just about the biggest thief to a night! Well penned!
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insomnia is a big spoiler of well laid plans to sleep – good one Lillian!
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Welcome to my world. Thank you for the prompt, It gave me something to do all night while the rest of the world is sleeping…..
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This is great! It speaks so clearly of the life I am living these days. Trying to sleep is just a waste of time, for a multitude of reasons. I feel like a zombie, yawning through life.
Thanks for sharing such a great quadrille!
Have a blessed weekend.
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Like the direction you took, Lillian. I have so many friends that suffer from this.
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