Uninspired

 

Uninspired

I tried blogging about a couple of things but couldn’t get going on them. One of them was ‘vocal fry,’ which seems to be the name for a croaky voice popularly embraced by some singers. I couldn’t make head or tail of it or see the point of it. There’s information here and here and here is an example.

The second thing I contemplated was ‘Galalith,’ known as ‘Erinoid’ in UK, which is a synthetic plastic derived from casein, which is found in mammals’ milk, mixed with formaldehyde.

Having failed at each of those, I turned to other things and previous posts.

I wrote the following a few years ago, in response to a writing prompt.

The Sisters Death and Night

For each night’s sleep is a little death
When the Sisters enter, arm in arm,
Smiling gently at each breath,
Wondering which of them will charm
The soul to dream or travel on?

And if at dawn the sleeper stirs,
Death nods to Night, cedes her downfall,
On this still morning she defers
To Night, who knows Death conquers all -
Death whispers soft, ‘Anon, anon.’

The idea of sleep as a little death has been used as a motif by several writers, including Buddha (c563 or 480 BC) Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)

A child’s prayer common in the 17^th century ran thus:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my Soul to keep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

Another prayer is called the ‘Black Paternoster,’ named so in Longfellow’s poem ‘The Golden Legend,’ in which Lucifer scorns the mass as the ‘Black Paternoster.’

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on.
Four corners to my bed,
Four angels round my head;
One to watch and one to pray
And two to bear my soul away.

It is thought to have ancient origins. From Wikipedia:

The Babylonian prayer "Shamash before me, behind me Sin, Nergal at

 my right, Ninib at my left", is echoed by the medieval Jewish prayer: "In the

 name of the Lord, the God of Israel, may Michael be at my right

 hand; Gabriel at my left; Uriel before me; Raphael behind me and

 the Shekhinah of God be above my head" which is used as a prayer before sleep.