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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.


Robert Francis was born in Upland, Pennsylvania. He studied at Harvard and taught at summer workshops and lectured at universities across the United States. His works include Stand with Me Here (1936); Like Ghosts of Eagles: Poems 1966-1974 (1974); a novel, We Fly Away (1948); and an autobiography, The Trouble with Francis (1971). He won the Shelley Memorial Award in 1939. (A very special THANK YOU to our friend Tara for providing us with this information.)

 

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