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These Poets Wrote After Midnight

Burning the midnight oil, paying homage to the greats

If I Ain't Readin'
3 min readMar 22, 2023
Image designed by author/Book cover designed Carol Devine Carson

A Five Star Reading Experience! ⭐⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Who would keep you awake
once meant the world to you,
rocked you in their arms,
those who loved you
You will fall asleep, by dawn, in tears — A Remedy For Insomnia by Vera Pavlova

This is just a piece of the poem by the best-selling Russian poet Vera Pavlova. If you get the chance, read the entire poem, it feels almost like a lullaby that creeps into your heart slowly. The final words “in tears” sealed the deal for me. Images of those who’ve gone before me, those who are now my ancestors, made my eyes water.

This is just one of many poems from Knopf’s Poem a Day program where he gathered some poets to submit to his Poems After Midnight collection. I feel as if I am missing out on something because I never knew about this.

What I did know about, was how much I miss burning the midnight oil and paying homage to the blackness of dawn while writing. I came up with some of the best(in my opinion) short stories and poetry during those hours.

Knopf states in his book,

“Poets are insomniacs or feel most productive in the middle of the night, or if nothing else, are people whose work requires an openness to dreams…

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If I Ain't Readin'
If I Ain't Readin'

Written by If I Ain't Readin'

Erica is an essayist and poet who enjoys reading, creating content, and helping others find their purpose too. Above all, she loves to read🖤

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