Spare Me, and: Before You Sleep Tonight

Spare Me, and: Before You Sleep Tonight Chelan Harkin (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Anonymous, Lover's Eyes via Metropolitan Museum of Art [End Page 337] Spare Me Spare me from all knowledgebut the knowledge of love, The love that edifies the mountains The love that makes the oak grow into the full nobility of itself The love that gives the robin its song The love that cloaks each night with elegance The love that intoxicates the beeto the heart of the flower The love that writes poetic eloquence into life The love that is the mother tongue of all hearts that speaks with the fluency of oneness. The love that contains usno matter how dedicatedly we try to reject it. [End Page 338] Before You Sleep Tonight Before you sleep tonight, consider allthe night-blooming flowers opening this moment before the moon. Consider all the owlsleaping off their branches to fly on silent wings into the night. Consider the earthen majesty of the combined dreams of the forest. Consider the light exchanged between the stars in their great web of the night. Consider the sentiencewithin each living thing— everything so alive with reverence. Consider the ancient temple of the hills and the mountains that are the monksdonning their silhouetted robes to hold vigil for you each night. Consider allthe god inside of you tends to [End Page 339] while you sleep with such tendernessand incredible intelligence— Organizing your whole inner life, soothing its edges, doing all it might to make you more hospitable to love. Consider, the whirlers up all night to dance their prayers while the dervish planets do the same. Let the lullaby of the worldwide chorus of cricketswrap itself around you tonight. Sleep well, my dear.All existence is spun of magic and you are outside of nothing. Be heldby the blanket of stars. [End Page 340] Chelan Harkin Chelan Harkin has authored two books of mystical poetry, Susceptible to Light and Let Us Dance! The Stumble and Whirl with The Beloved. Her upcoming book, Wild Grace, will be published by Monkfish Books this November. Another volume, The Prophetess, will appear in the fall of 2024. Chelan lives in Washington State with her two young children. Copyright © 2023 Johns Hopkins University Press