Poem published in Calliope

 

FEAR OF SLEEP in CALLIOPE

 

Calliope published my poem in its Fall 2026 issue and is available to read online. The title of the poem is “Fear of Sleep.”

 

I have problems with sleeping, am reluctant to go to sleep to begin with. In fact, at night after I lie in bed, my bedside lamp stays on until it seems okay to turn out the light. Throughout the night, I sleep connected with earbuds to audio books and in wakeful moments listen to a voice reading a story.

 

I suspect sleep is a foretaste of nonexistence, giving us a sense of what death will be like. Unless we dream, sleep separates us from all that we know. There’s no sense of loss or gain, here or there, now or never, love or hate, no consciousness, no awareness, nothing. Then we wake up and we’re here, everything is as it was when we went to sleep.

 

But have you ever thought that you might wake and you’re not yourself? Or that you’re somewhere else? Surrounded by things you don’t recognize? Or have you thought that you might never wake up?

 

Calliope is a publication full of useful as well as entertaining reading. This issue has a couple of articles with practical suggestions helpful to writers on subjects such as reviving neglected manuscripts; how to land interviews; writing itself (like baking without a recipe).