I had to add a video at the bottom of this post that I got from Christopher at View from the northern wall http://northernwall.blogspot.com/ I commented on his post and had to edit my words but this is my blog so here goes...This is a fucking amazing performance. Fucking brilliant! I think the song is called Sombody I used to know by Walk Off the Earth.
It is only a sheet of paper anyway
The nights were long back in those days
Time trickled slower the longer
I went without
Sleep eluded me
Not strange at all
To stand still, absolutely quiet
Outside the closet door
Because I know someone is hiding there
Driving past picturesque tree lined parks
Everything is two dimensional
Thinking I can drive off the road
It is only a sheet of paper anyway
One night I found my self
Staring at a can of Campbell’s
Creamy chicken condensed soup
Thinking this is how Andy must have felt
I went through a period of time where I didn’t sleep for months at a time. This was brought about by natural causes, weather stress, or genetics is up for debate. Towards the end of this particular bout of sleeplessness I was doing things that I knew were not rational. One night, actually more than one night, I spent the entire night standing outside of every closet door in my house knowing someone was hiding in there waiting for me to go to sleep so they could come out and kill me and my wife. A week later I knew that there were people creeping around my house, so it made sense to go outside with a butcher knife and a club to catch them or to scare them off. The last straw for me was when I was driving down 99E by Eastmoreland Park just outside of Portland Oregon, and everything appeared to be printed on a giant sheet of paper. Suffering from that level of sleep deprivation everything loses its depth, becomes two dimensional. I knew that I could drive off the road and I would drive through a piece of paper with no worries. Shortly thereafter I sought the help of a doctor, but that is another story for another night...
Chris McQueeney 2/27/12 10:17 PM
photo credit: Bob Adelman, 1965 of Andy Warhol
14 comments:
My son once worked nights and got sleep deprived - to the point where he said he started talking like a 'weeble'...I guess that comes to much the same thing. Interesting take on the Magpie image.
Sleep deprivation is a dire state to go through - ask any young Mum with a fractious baby... LOL
Now, how about wandering over HERE and learning how to turn of the time consuming, double, word verification, to save your comment leavers some time?
Of course yesterday's 3 AM post of my own has no personal reference to your experience. This is how we can connect with each other's experience and guess that many of us share in the deeper reaches of isolate life. You understand how it is more difficult to reach these distortions of consciousness when you are actively engaged in healthy relationships with more than one other person.
I have experienced sleep deprivation ... 1967, a husband stationed far away in Vietnam .. four children to care for, protect. One year of sleepless nights, afraid to sleep actually. Thankfully we all made it through that year.
Your poem is so well written .. I'm ready for 'another story, another night.'
Sometimes memorizing something and reciting it before you go to sleep helps. Sometimes...
I once didn't sleep for two nights straight and I thought my ear fell off in class. I understand things getting a little weird. haha!
Very interesting poem though. I loved the explanation.
Distortions of consciousness? Aren't those dreams, and aren't they the real deprivation when we go without sleep?
Removing Word Verification
(in case I can tempt you into being kind to us busy commenter)
Come on! You can do it!!! Honestly, it really is extremely simple to do once you go to your ‘Dashboard’ (the word appears in the top right of your blog, next to your email address and the words ‘sign out’)
So the sequence of mouse clicks goes like this:-
• Click on Dashboard
• Click on Settings (shows on one of the tabs along the top)
• Click on Comments (shows as one of the words in a line below the row of tabs)
• Scroll down the page until you see it says Show word Verification? There is a yes/no button choice – click No
• Make sure you click the SAVE button at the bottom on the page.
I saw an Andy Warhol exhibit once :-)
Thank goodness you consulted your doctor!n That must have been terrifying. This story rebinds me of a book I read a few years ago where a Civil War veteran who suffered severe stress syndrome imagined a man walking past was after so he shot him dead!
The car driving part was dangerous too! Keep taking the tablets!
I agree with Jen too about word verification. It slows down the comment process too much. Go for it!
Sleep deprivation is a bizarre and scary thing. I'm glad you got help and got some zzzzzz's. Makes for some powerful poetry thought.
@ all
for some reason blogger has now decided that I dont need to be able to reply in a personal way to each commenter...
This was a very hard time in my life, imagine that! it was scary I remember talking to friends and a few family members, about how I felt like I was going crazy. 6 mo of not sleeping I was not sane and the decisions I made as a result damaged my life to the point that seven years later I am still cleaning up the mess.
Glad to hear you're getting some sleep...nice write...especially the last stanza...
The job i left in taipei is slowly destroying my natural sleep habit becoz we work like slaves, that i decided to leave and answered prayer that a job offer here in canada came...
Interesting magpie...
JJRod'z
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