Day 17 - All You Who Sleep Tonight - by Vikram Seth

I often can't sleep on Monday nights.  It's not that I do anything different on this day. Sometimes, I wish for sleep but after hours of restlessness, I arise and log on to my computer to work on my hobbies. Or search for ways to sleep like 'all you who sleep tonight' are doing.  In the quiet still hours of the night, I know I am not alone.

Vikram Seth (1952 - ) was born in Kolkata (Calcutta).  I remember vividly a sleepness night there listening to traffic and early morning roosters, anxious to visit the Howrah Bridge where everything happens.  India is so vibrant, so full of life and living and yet so full of dying and death, right there in front of you.  Images float across the mind long after the day is finished.  It is easy to feel alone in this stillness, this blackness, this emptiness of night. But you are not alone.

Here is my spoken version of this poem.
https://soundcloud.com/raindrop-11/all-you-who-sleep-tonight

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All You Who Sleep Tonight - by Vikram Seth

All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above -

Know that you aren't alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.

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Here is a very cute video of a very young boy reciting this poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oO631Wy0ye4&index=24&list=PLFTiLzoRrPMcHCKW1UGZ9zwKlrp71gzDV