Sleepless Night ~ Original Haiku

in #hive-1614655 months ago

The other day I woke up around 2-3 am and couldn't get back to bed. I know this is a common thing for some folks, but it doesn't hit me very often. That said, occasionally it will. My mind will instantly flood with thoughts—things I have to do, worries for the future, that kind of thing—and before I know it I'm awake enough that just laying there starts to become uncomfortable and I want to move a little.

Before I got up to take a midnight walk, a haiku popped into my head. hah yes, among the other things that had come in to wake me up, a haiku was one of them. Anyway, after I got up, I went to my desk to write it down.

summer night—
it's surprisingly chilly
as I lay sleepless


"View from Takatsu in Osaka" by Kawase Hasui



I suppose it's not really the real summer yet. It is summer by the traditional Japanese almanac that the haiku world still uses. The old thinking was that each season starts at the midpoint between equinox and solstice, the point where the previous season was at the peak of its strength. The rational for this was that from this point forward more and more of the next season starts to show up, so in that sense it is the beginning of the next one. It's an interesting way of looking at things.

Anyway, so it is summer by the traditional reckoning (which started on May 5th) but the real summer heat won't come until after rainy season ends around the end of June. Until then, we'll still be in the early summer (or later spring, by the modern way of looking at things) mode of being hot during the day but fairly cool at night. That explains why I was a bit chilly as I laid in bed. So I suppose it really isn't that surprising when we consider everything, but still, it is summer and summer carries the image of hot all the time, so against that image it is surprising.

Yes, grammar nerds, lay is transitive (it requires an object), so the correct word to use here is "lie", but there is an object suggested here and unspoken (my bed) so in that sense lay is correct. It sounds better, anyway.

Buy actually, the first version I wrote down was:

three am
it's surprisingly chilly
as I lie awake

Using the correct verb there. But I decided to replace "three am" with the season so that we could understand why being chilly is surprising. I don't always follow the season word requirement of traditional haiku, but in this case it seems to need more context. Without the time in the first line, I now have to specify why being awake is a big deal, so adding "sleepless" and suggesting "in bed" by using lay instead of lie.


At any rate, after writing that haiku, I took a short walk outside, then read a little, then went back to bed. Many people who study this sort of thing have in recent years suggested that before the electric light most people slept in two separate phases with an awake period of an hour or two in the middle (usually called biphasic sleep). On the rare times when I do have these sleepless periods at night, I'm reminded of that.

Also posted on my webpage

Hi there! David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Twitter or Mastodon.
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To me this Haiku in a few words paints the picture of an unlucky night.

Great work.

@dbooster here's one of mines for you...mayhaps you can find a photo or painting that fits...

Under grey skies
rain echoes on weary hearts;
dreams drenched,
hope survives,
amongst fading footsteps.

Keep well my friend!

I enjoy the clarity of the image you use. The haiku format really helps with it's economy of words. Thank you

Second sleep! My partner used to do that all the time but cognitive behavior therapy pretty well put a stop to it, now we just joke about first and second sleep now when it happens.

The other day I woke up around 2-3 am

This is me when I sleep early like 8 am because my body is functioning to sleep at most 6 hours.

Waking up at 2 to 3 AM is horrible. That would only give me an hour or so before I need to be up for work, so yeah, there really wouldn't be much point of going back to bed. A very interesting analysis of your Haiku. We have been having a pretty pleasant season so far. I've only had to have our A/C on maybe three days between the beginning of May and now.

I know the feeling of insomnia! I bet the walk helped.

Great poem! I honestly haven't tried to write on in years. Maybe it would be good to get the old brain working to stave of dementia, use it or lose...
!BBH

This haiku has a very simple but universal theme. I think we can all identify with the experience of waking up chilly in the middle of the night. Great discussion too!