Summons

[WilliamPitt]

Keep me from going to sleep too soon
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up. Come any hour
Of night. Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look. Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see. Talk to me till
I'm half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I'm not too hard persuaded.

- 'Summons" by Robert Francis

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/summons/

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Will...

Someday, when I grow up, I want to be that good.

Thank you for sharing this.

It's glorious!

:hug:

[Parche]

2. wow

I thought you were going on Jury duty or something.....:woohoo::hi:

[Raven]

4. yes and I thought I was going to have to bail him out!

[MiddleFingerMom]

3. FANTASTIC!!! It embodies a friend I once had...

.
.
.
...my first lead guitarist -- a fun fun FUN madman who
had NO chronological restraints whatsoever.
.
.
.
He woke me up at 3 AM one winter morning in Pennsylvania
by POUNDING on my door. When I opened it, he told me
to go get dressed -- that I was "gonna LOVE this!!!"
.
.
I knew him well enough to believe that would be so.
.
.
It had snowed during the night -- going from no snow on
the ground at all to about 6 inches. He drove to the nearest
mall (maybe WalMart) HUGE parking lot and we took turns doing
WILD, multi-spinned doughnuts for about an hour-and-a-half --
roaring with laughter the whole time.
.
Stone-cold sober... so if we had been interrupted by the police,
in all likelihood they would have just told us to grow up and
go home.
.
We'd have complied with half of that.
.
.
.
He was also into a LOT of drugs. FUN drugs. After he finally
went clean-and-sober (good for him -- he was starting to hurt
himself), he confessed to me at a party that his biggest fear
was that. without the drugs... he would be considered dull and
boring (this is not an unusual fear).
.
His sister was listening. She smiled, patted his head, and told
him, "Honestly, the family was hoping your wild behavior WAS
due to the drugs... but from what we can tell -- that is just,
unfortunately, not so."
.
He BEAMED -- for a long, long, LONG time.
.
.
.
.
.
Thanks for posting this and bringing back those wonderful memories.
.
.
.

[nolabear]

5. This is one of my favorite poems. Thank you so much for reminding me.

[pacalo]

6. I especially like this poem.

It's a great outlook on life: never take a moment of "being" for granted. Wake me up anytime for a beautiful moment to experience.