Sleep, Deep Sleep, comic poem no 404 by Angela Lansbury

 

Where do you fly to when you're asleep?

Up in blue sky or down in dark deep?

I don't go far, though I've seen the world

Guess where I'm hiding? Under sheets, curled

My eyes are there, resting under lids

My head, like a rock, holds the pillow

My legs, solid tree trunks, lift, shape sheets

Gentle lungs pump, like leaking bellows

My mind's busy sorting out the trash

Inventing movies with silly plots

You can see where I am, still in bed

Have I gone elsewhere? No I have not!

Although my two eyes aren't open wide

I''m gently breathing, pumping red blood

I promise you, there's action inside

Fighting the flu, doing unseen good.

When I wake up, I forget daft dreams

By nine I've had breakfast, smug - washed, dressed

Mind's clean, ready for sensible schemes

Refreshed by rest for doing my best 

I was not away during the night

You could wake me up with noise or light

Alarmed or annoyed after that fright

Then happy, ready to greet sunlight.

In dreams, packed old nonsense, dried out tears

Fondly surveyed photos of past years

I've sorted recent and distant fears

Found stores of smiles, for you. darling dears.

-end-

Photos from Wikipedia article on sleep. Sleeping Girl, Domenico Fetti, c. 1615,

Sleeping Girl, Domenico Fetti, c. 1615

Hours of sleep recommended for each age group^[91]

Age and condition Sleep needs Newborns (0–3 months)14 to 17 hours 

Infants (4–11 months)12 to 15 hours

Toddlers (1–2 years)11 to 14 hours

Preschoolers (3–4 years)10 to 13 hours

School-age children (5–12 years)    9 to 11 hours

Teenagers (13–17 years)8 to 10 hours

Adults (18–64 years)7 to 9 hours

Older Adults (65 years and over)7 to 8 hours

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In the poem 404 I considered changing one line to

I promise quiet action inside.

When I revise my poems's first draft, or re-read it for typos, sometimes I think of another alliteration to add.

 Please bookmark poems you would like to re-read, and share links with your family and friends

Humorous Poets, Songwriters and Singers (alphabetical list) + Ode to Invisible Poems (Comic Poem no 128)

A song is a poem set to music for a voice using tones and rhythm as well as pauses.

Ayres, Pam

'I'd have taken more care of me teeth'

Lansbury, Angela

Ode To Invisible Poems

Guess - what would your writer really like to be? 11

Known for last words, a famous comic poet 11

Alas, jokes aren't allowed engraved on gravestones 11

So nobody sad could read it nor know it 11

So I'll hurry to write couplets on cloud nine 11

And hope a hurricane will swiftly blow it 11

So it travels like ballons around the world 11

When workshy, look from your window and know it 11

I'd like to write it quickly, flowing and quick 11

So the dumbest can read it, when sick, or thick 11

Ideas to copy, images to pick 11

Let's kick phrases about, like a Lego brick 11

When you're blue, in the pink, look up to white clouds 11

Be inspired when you're thinking of busy me 11

The dreamer who wrote invisible poems 11

Sardonic, comic, bucolic poetry.11

(I wrote this on Wednesday 13th April, 2022.)

Carrol, Lewis

'Say what you mean and mean what you say.'

Holloway, Stanley, reciting Albert and the Lion

'What do you usually pay?'

Lear, Edward

• There was an Old Man with a beard,
  Who said, "It is just as I feared!—
  Two Owls and a Hen,
  Four Larks and a Wren,
  Have all built their nests in my beard!"
  • Book of Nonsense, Limerick 1 (1846).

Lehrer, Tom

'The Catholics hate the Protestants, and Protestants hate the catholics, and everybody hates the Jews'.

McGonagal, William 

The Tay Bridge disaster

Milligan, Spike 

Gravestone message: I told them I was ill. 

Responding to WW2 question from Harry Secombe, 'Have you seen a cannon?': 

Spike: 'What colour?'

Nash, Ogden

Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.

Shel Silverstein 

(Wrote the song A Boy Named Sue)

Sherman, Allan 

(Hello, mother, hello father, here I am at Camp Granada)

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Humorous_poets 

http://www.shelsilversteinpoems.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriott_Edgar

Stanley Holloway reciting Albert and the Lion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaw-savyK0s

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer

https://interestingliterature.com/2017/05/10-of-the-best-poems-about-insects/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ogden_Nash

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Humorous_poets