Semi-formal verse: Barbara Loots, ‘The State of Absolute Nap’

Its conditions are rare. You must be free
of all desires but one: to sleep. You must be alone,
completely isolated from the compelling hum
of traffic or tv. There must be no phone,
unfinished book, or business left undone,
no guilt about neglecting anyone,
and nowhere to go too soon.
Let there be rain on a long afternoon
in the deep woods, at the end
of a long path, where no one will come,
after the last word with a listening friend.

*****

Barbara Loots writes: “Far from the original location of this poem, on a tiny island off the grid in Ontario, I discover that the state of absolute nap is nearly a sure thing any day. I acknowledge with gratitude that ‘Nap’ was first published by poet and editor Jane Greer, who kept the flame of formal poetry alight in the Plains Poetry Journal for many years.”

After decades of publishing her poems, Barbara Loots has laurels to rest on, but keeps climbing. The recent gathering at Poetry by the Sea in Connecticut inspired fresh enthusiasm. Residing in Kansas City, Missouri, Barbara and her husband Bill Dickinson are pleased to welcome into the household a charming tuxedo kitty named Miss Jane Austen, in honor of the 250th birthday year of that immortal. She has new work coming in The Lyric, in the anthology The Shining Years II, and elsewhere. She serves as the Review editor for Light Poetry Magazine.

Photo: “331 of 365” by Leah.Markum is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.