Sleeping with the Muse,
  my nights have grown short

Sleeping with the Muse,
  all senses comport

Sleeping with the Muse,
  words dance with delight

Sleeping with the Muse,
  confronting my fright

Sleeping with the Muse,
  her will tests again

Sleeping with the Muse,
  not lover or friend

Sleeping with the Muse,
  my dreams sacrificed

Sleeping with the Muse,
  all rest put on ice

Sleeping with the Muse,
  the whispers come clean

Sleeping with the Muse,
  excuses demeaned

Sleeping with the Muse,
  my spool is respun

Sleeping with the Muse,
  divorced from the sun

Sleeping with the Muse,
  in darkness I learn

Sleeping with the Muse,
  my spirit confirmed

Sleeping with the Muse
  till dawn’s freeing light

Sleeping with the Muse
   —new verse to take flight

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2016)