"How to Sleep"

"How to Sleep"

Child in the womb,
Or saint on a tomb -
Which way shall I lie
To fall asleep?
The keen moon stares
From the back of the sky,
The clouds are all home
Like driven sheep.

Bright drops of time,
One and two chime,
I turn and lie straight
With folded hands;
Convent-child, Pope,
They choose this state,
And their minds are wiped calm
As sea-levelled sands.

So my thoughts are:
But sleep stay as far,
Till I crouch on one side
Like a foetus again-
For sleeping, like death,
Must be won without pride,
With a nod from nature,
With a lack of strain,
And a loss of stature. 


                                                Philip Larkin

Marc Chagall. (from the galler exposition " Il mondo sottosopra" - "The world upside dowm").