ANYONE who finds sleep elusive will respond to the theme of Grace Nichols’s new collection, The Insomnia Poems (Bloodaxe, £9.95). Nichols came to Britain from Guyana when she was 27 and brought with her the warmth of her Caribbean heritage. Her Bloodaxe retrospective, I Have Crossed An Ocean, was published in 2010.
ONCE AGAIN
Once again
the hallway mirror
is startled by my 3am face –
a passing moon
across the stillness
of its lake –
The hallway mirror
that has regained
its silvered composure
but fuming within –
the depths –
that it must always reflect.
ONE NIGHT COMES LIKE A BLESSING
Like a cruel lover or spiteful mistress
No-Sleep demands my restive attentiveness.
No-Sleep prefers me stripped –
a dark projectionist
winding and unwinding the reel of my thoughts.
An old grained movie I can’t switch off –
a starring of loves and loss, TV footage,
soft tears, mortifications, smothered laughs.
Then, one night comes like a blessing.
A visitation of wings that sees me falling.
Whoever wants me now, I am swimming
towards my House of Dreams.
Let no one disturb this peace.
Let no one shake me
even from the branches of nightmares.
Come morning I am reborn again –
a fresh-faced Eve – emerging from the rib’s shadow –
ready to meet the daily pandemonium of living.
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