A Poem with Rough Clothes (by Ada Limón)

Today I am happy to share with you a poem from National Book Award Finalist BRIGHT DEAD THINGS (Milkweed) by Ada Limón.

I love the whole poem, but those last lines really get me. They speak to me of this desire I have for meaning and connection, the desire to make an impact.

As much as I seek comfort, and also want to provide it -- I also want discomfort. I want to experience things that make me twitchy and uncomfortable, things that frighten me and things that I haven't yet (and maybe never will) figure out. It's in "rough clothes" that we deepen and broaden the experience of living and loving....

and those are just a few of my thoughts when reading this poem. :) What are YOUR thoughts?

The Noisiness of Sleep
by Ada Limón

Careful of what I carry
in my head and in my hollow,

I've been a long time worried
about grasping infinity

and coaxing some calm
out of the softest part

of the pins and needles of me.
I'd like to take a nap.

But not a nap that's eternal,
a nap where you wake up

having dreamt of falling, but
you've only fallen into

an ease so unknown to you
it looks like a new country.

Let me slip into a life less messy.
Let me slip into your sleeve.

Be very brave about my
trespass, the plan is simple --

the plan is the clock tower
and the lost crow. It'll be rich.

We'll live forever. Every moon
will be a moon of surrender

and lemon seeds. You there,
standing up in the crowd,

I'm not proud. The stove
can't boast of the meal.

All this to say -- consider this,
with your combination of firefly

and train whistle, consider this,
with your maze and steel,

I want to be the rough clothes
you can't sleep in.