Variation on the Word Sleep (Margaret Atwood)

After finding yesterday's entry, I had hoped to find this poem by Margaret Atwood which I had first found in high school. It was a poem that really made me feel something - I read a bunch of poetry in hs, but I'd mostly just 'loved' poetry in the sense that I appreciated it. This poem melted me then as it did when I reread it today.

It's a pure romantic poem. It's sweet. It's storybook-like. I learn about N - her desire for essential anonymity is particularly telling. I learn about her culture - how she imagines her love walking in a world of "wavering forest of bluegreen leaves / with its watery sun & three moons". That image is so very science fiction-y, I feel as though I have read or seen this world before in some other work.

I love the storybook in this poem. It's very linear - how the love goes from sleep to the cave to the boat and back to the body. I like to imagine that that has to do with Atwood's more famous life as a novelist.

I like her books a lot and this poem is all kinds of wonderful. The kind of love that N has for her lover is so strong and kind, creative and lovely. All of those words equally apply to the poem as well, of course. Love this poem very very much.

Favorite line: "I would like to watch you sleeping, / which might not happen. / I would like to watch you, / sleeping."