Embedded In Sleeplessness (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Insomnia blankets my night.
Slumber teases — declines to alight.
I toss and I turn
In my bed, as I yearn
For release from my sleep-deprived plight.
(Prompted by Theme Thursday’s “beds.”)
DVerse Poets asks us to wax poetic about machine dreams:
Limerick Invention
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A fellow invented an app
That fills a technology gap:
It gives you a pinch
If your boss starts to inch
Near your desk, while you’re taking a nap.
(You can find more of my technology humor here.)
UPDATE: February 28 is National Public Sleeping Day.
UPDATE 2: National Napping Day is the second Monday of March (the Monday after DST.)
DVerse prompts us to write about nightmares. Here’s my response:
A Poet’s Nightmare (Limerick)
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A gal had a frightening dream.
It featured her muse — made her scream:
Said her muse, “You must write
About terror tonight
And forever, cuz nightmare’s your theme.”
Sleep-Deprived Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
An inventor was trying to nap,
But snoozing just wasn’t on tap.
His constant fixation
With tech innovation
Required a sleep-prompting app.
(Author’s Note: I’m not an inventor, but I’m a life-long insomniac who could use such an application.)
I lie in my bed,
coaxing my brain to adapt
and glide into sleep.
*****
Insomnia strikes
when I’m at my most weary—
tired irony.
*****
My lullaby verse—
I knew I should write it down—
now it’s lost to sleep.
*****
My thoughts skip around
like out-of-control children—
scaring sleep away.
*****
You can read my How To Become An Insomniac (Humorous How-To) here.
(My first haiku was inspired by Three Word Wednesday’s “adapt, glide, lie” prompt. My second haiku was inspired by Sensational Haiku Wednesday’s “weary” prompt.
Update: Happy Festival Of Sleep Day!
View my insomnia haiku image here.
As I’ve mentioned before, I enjoy the challenge of writing acrostic limericks. But I found the latest acrostic limerick prompt from Acrostic Only to be tougher than usual. Here’s what I came up with:
One Headache of an Acrostic Limerick
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Pleasant dreams are quite hard to secure
On nights when you have to endure
Unspeakable noise:
Next door neighbors with boys,
Deaf’ning dogs, and the parents on tour.
Just a single spark —
all you need to fire up
imagination.
*****
Blaming messenger
heralds avoidance when you
can’t bear the message.
*****
Some thorny problems
can’t be solved by deep thinking
and just need deep sleep.
*****
(Prompts used in this post: making fire from We Write Poems, messenger from Sunday Scribblings, and thorn from Weekend Wordsmith)
Once again, it’s Limerick-Off time. I hope you’ll join me in writing a limerick with this first line:
A jittery fellow named Fred…
Here’s mine. (It’s a three-verse limerick, but a standard one-verse limerick is fine, of course.)
Jittery Limerick (Jittery Limerick Audio)
By Madeleine Begun Kane
A jittery fellow named Fred
Had problems with sleeping in bed.
He could sleep on a chair
Or a stool — anywhere
But in bed, where things came to a head.
He was haunted in bed by his fears,
Whether sober or after some beers.
He would worry and fret—
Could not snooze on a bet.
And that’s how he lived for ten years.
But then podcasts came into his life.
(He’d heard about them from his wife.)
The discussions and talk
Made sad thoughts take a walk.
Now he slumbers in bed without strife.
Please feel free to write your own limerick using the same first line and post it in my comments. And if you’re on Facebook, I hope you’ll join my friends in that same activity in my Facebook Limerick-Off post.
To receive an email alert whenever I post a new Limerick-Off, please send me an email requesting the alerts. You’ll find my email address on the upper right sidebar, right above my photo. Thanks!
Sorry for my late posting. As I mentioned in my last post, I recently broke my wrist.
Today’s limerick, haiku, and senryu theme is sleep and insomnia. First, my limerick:
Sleepless In Bayside
By Madeleine Begun Kane
My husband can catnap at will,
And my jealous reaction is shrill.
My insomnia’s bad —
Just can’t help getting mad,
Cuz his snores can be heard in Brazil.
And now my haiku or senryu:
I watch my husband
Sleep hour after hour.
What is his secret?
Now, of course, it’s your turn. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write some verse about sleep and insomnia. When you’ve posted your poem(s), please return here and add a direct link to your themed poetry, using Mr. Linky. There’s no rush, by the way, because you have a whole week to post it.
(Note: My poems were inspired by these three prompts: “catnap, “my nights” and “when I watch you.”)
Limerick and Haiku Prompts Participants
| 1. gautami tripathy 2. lissa 3. Granny Smith 4. Crafty Green Poet |
5. Bevie 6. Noah the Great 7. Noah the Great 8. Bevie |
9. Mary’s Madness 10. art predator 11. Connie |
UPDATE: Mr. Linky is now closed, but you can still add links to your sleep and insomnia verse in the Comments. And if you’d like to participate in a new poetry prompt, you can always find my latest one here.
Mad Kane (Madeleine Begun Kane) is a writer, musician, and "recovering lawyer." She won the Robert Benchley Society Award For Humor and enjoys writing limericks, song parodies, and current events haiku.
You can email her at madkane@madkane.com, visit her political humor blog, or stop by her home page.
