Melatonin #poetry #dVerse

Sleeping disturbed 
by a noise in the night
melatonin evaporates in plain sight
and wasn’t there that poem I should write?
Then that other poem, two challenges, a novel…
~don’t forget 
you have to get 
the kids to school on time~

Writers should never write, then
maybe we would have the time to live
but without writing
would we feel
alive?

© 2021 experimentsinfiction.com. All Rights Reserved.

Written for dVerse

Tonight, Sanaa is hosting dVerse Poetics, and she asks us to look at derivatives:

In case, you opt for this part of the challenge, I would like you to think along the lines of blockage. It can be anything. 

You could choose to write about words seeming far out of reach of the Poet’s hands or as an obstruction which makes movement or flow difficult or impossible.

Take out a notebook and while allowing your mind to be free from thoughts, write down the first few words that come.

My words were: Can’t sleep anymore tonight over. Following Sanaa’s instructions, I replaced one of the words (‘sleep’) with a derivative, and went on to write a poem on the theme of insomnia. I’m lucky in that I don’t suffer from writer’s block. Instead, sometimes I have to block the words out, or I’d never sleep!

I chose the title ‘melatonin,’ because I wondered what causes that fuzzy feeling when you first wake up, and feel as though you could fall straight back to sleep. It turns out this hormone is responsible.

The bar opens from 3pm EST – join us!

67 thoughts on “Melatonin #poetry #dVerse

Add yours

  1. Writing can be all too consuming. I know that at night, the writing deadlines comes to my head as well. But deadlines spurs me to writing, smiles.

  2. Beautifully, beautifully done, Ingrid! 😀 I am so pleased you went with option B of the challenge. Yours is a dazzling poem that ends with a question which perhaps we all ask ourselves from time to time. I say, write on! Thank you so much for adding your voice to the prompt 💝💝

  3. I like the stream of consciousness feel to this one, which is what often “evaporates melatonin.” Spinning Shakespeare, “to write or not to write, that is the question.”

  4. sleep what is sleep? i have had nights with hardly a wink slept so get the melatonin kicking in at luchtime. I have been nudged at the end of lunch break on more than once.. great poem

    1. Thanks Rog! I never have problems falling asleep at night, but I’ll often wake up in the early hours, and sometimes I can’t resist using that quiet time to compose!

  5. Damn, I feel this. I barely have time to write poetry anymore and I honestly feel so… well, I feel an absence and honestly, uninspired. Beautifully penned, Ingrid. Goes to show how life finds a way to both give us time for what we love and divide it into things we must do to keep life going. All about priorities, of course. I think writing is living–I live more in fiction with that excitement than reality (which, yes, that can be depressing). Reality is just what it is and it can often be disappointing. If I’m not writing, I’m not living lol. 😛

    1. It’s a difficult balance, isn’t it? I really feel the pressure to make money from my writing now, otherwise I’ll have to return to work and then I can forget about writing 😬

  6. Love this, Ingrid. 🥰 With busy lives it’s a wonder writers find the time to write, but you are proof that is possible. For too long I did not have/make the time to write creatively. Writing brought me back to life. 💓

  7. This kicks ass Ingrid! Well written. Love the ethereal of creating, bridged with the practical of living. Always tough to balance. As an ongoing insomniac, my recipe to get my 5-6 hours of sleep at night is this. When I begin to feel the hint of oncoming wane, I take my Zolpidem. Then when I feel I might actually sleep, I hit with a two-pill Melatonin chaser. Usually will keep me sleeping at least 5 hours. When it doesn’t, I just start writing again, knowing I’m probably gonna take a nap at some point. Sleep tight tonight 😴 my friend… ✌🏼🙂

  8. lol you nailed it Ingrid, when I first started writing poetry I was told ‘so long as it doesn’t interfer with your life’. So I ensure proper breaks, turn off the mental chatter when it’s time to sleep, etc … such a relief that it’s part of my life but doesn’t rule it 🙂

  9. A dilemma. I’m in awe at people who can write and publish as they’re raising little humans. I couldn’t. Sure I wrote– writing is breathing, but was too busy to ever give publishing a second of my thoughts.
    Keep going, you. You are amazing.

  10. but without writing
    would we feel
    alive?

    Great close, Ingrid! Would one feel lost and useless with all the time in the world.at our disposal? Writing is the savior!

    Hank

  11. I can totally relate, Ingrid. I am easily disturbed in the night too, mostly by my own thoughts. And I often wonder why the urge to write comes to me then when I really need to rest?! 😀 Thanks for teaching me a new word 🙂

  12. the eternal question of the artist: does art get in life’s way, or does life get in art’s way. Well done.

  13. An important and intriguing question, Ingrid. Nicely done! Sometimes it’s difficult to write, but yet we still want to!
    (I don’t normally have a problem sleeping, but the other night I did.) 😀

  14. I love the different line lengths in this poem. The rhythm feels like how your thoughts are broken up when you wake up at night. And my favourite line: Writers should never write, then / maybe we would have the time to live. That’s such a good line.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: