Throughout the Night

How I hate the long dark night

When I lay awake and yearn for peace

When all around have gone to sleep

When still I toss and turn in this room

The hours creep past, laden with lead

And still I lay here in my bed.

If I could stay all day in my bed

Then do my days work in the night

Still through wakefulness I’d be led

And still my mind would not grasp peace.

Wherever I’d lay would be more prison then room

With my thoughts barring me from sleep.

Oh how I wish that I could sleep

Wrapped in my husband’s arms in our bed

With soft darkness filling our room

I would dream in bliss through the night

Then for those hours I would know peace

As through sweet dreams my mind is led

I wish my eyelids could be weighed with lead

 Then perhaps I would capture sleep

Then I would know that blessed peace.

But still I can not settle into bed

Still I lay and view the passing night

And still my thoughts race about the room

Now, again, I realize how silent in my room

And how silence is as heavy as raw lead.

As I lay here, awake all this night

I find myself praying for sweet sleep

Even for just a few hours here in my bed

Just so this silence would also be peace.

Yet not even my thoughts are at peace

And I am doomed to stay awake in this room.

Apparently not even the softest bed

Could free me from this oppressive lead

Which weighs my soul and chases away sleep

And keeps me prisoner through this night.

If I could find that weighty piece of lead

I would throw it from this room and sleep

I would enjoy my bed—even if just for this night.