To You Before the Close of Day

To you before the close of day, 

Creator of all things, we pray
that, in your constant clemency,
our guard and keeper you would be.

Save us from troubled, restless sleep;
from all ill dreams your children keep.
So calm our minds that fears may cease
and rested bodies wake in peace.

A healthy life we ask of you:
the fire of love in us renew,
and when the dawn new light will bring,
your praise and glory we shall sing.

Almighty Father, hear our cry
through Jesus Christ, our Lord, most high,
Whom with the Spirit we adore
forever and for evermore. Amen.

-- 6th century compline hymn

Insomnia I

Some nights it's bound to be your best way out,

When nightmare is the short end of the stick,
When sleep is a part of town where it's not safe
To walk at night, when waking is the only way
You have of distancing your wretched dead,
A growing crowd, and escaping out of their
Time into yours for another little while;

Then pass ghostly, a planet in the house
Never observed, among the sleeping rooms
Where children dream themselves, and thence go down
Into the empty domain where daylight reigned;
Reward yourself with drink and a book to read,
A mystery, for its elusive gift
Of reassurance against the hour of death.
Order your heart about: Stop doing that!
And get the world to be secular again.

Then, when you know who done it, turn out the light,
And quietly in darkness, in moonlight, or snowlight
Reflective, listen to the whistling earth
In its backspin trajectory around the sun
That makes the planets sometimes retrograde
And brings the cold forgiveness of the dawn
Whose light extinguishes all stars but one.


-- Howard Nemerov (1920-1991), US poet laureate 1963-1964 and 1988-1990. American poet and teacher

Sleeping Prayer

I am placing my soul and my body 
On Thy sanctuary this night, O God, 
On Thy sanctuary, O Jesus Christ, 
On Thy sanctuary, O Spirit of perfect truth, 
The Three who would defend my cause, 
Nor turn their backs upon me. 

Thou, Father, who art kind and just, 
Thou, Son, who didst overcome death,
Thou, Holy Spirit of power,
Be keeping me this night from harm;
The Three who would justify me
Keeping me this night and always.

--from the Carmina Gadelica, collected by Alexander Carmichael (1832-1912) from the Outer Hebrides in Scotland

The Morning-Watch

O joys! infinite sweetness! with what flow’rs 
And shoots of glory my soul breaks and buds! 
All the long hours 
Of night, and rest, 
Through the still shrouds 
Of sleep, and clouds,
This dew fell on my breast;
Oh, how it bloods
And spirits all my earth! Hark! In what rings 
And hymning circulations the quick world 
Awakes and sings; 
The rising winds
And falling springs,
Birds, beasts, all things
Adore him in their kinds. 
Thus all is hurl’d 
In sacred hymns and order, the great chime
And symphony of nature. Prayer is 
The world in tune, 
A spirit voice,
And vocal joys
Whose echo is heav’n’s bliss. 
O let me climb
When I lie down!The pious soul by night
Is like a clouded star whose beams, though said 
To shed their light
Under some cloud,
Yet are above,
And shine and move
Beyond that misty shroud.
So in my bed,
That curtain’d grave, though sleep, like ashes, hide
My lamp and life, both shall in thee abide.

--Henry Vaughan (1621-1695) Welsh poet and inspiration for the Oxford Movement

Evening Prayer

O God, we praise You for the night and for sleep. Release our limbs of toil. Smooth our brow of care. Grant us a refreshing draught of forgetfulness. Comfort those who toss on a bed of pain, or whose nerves crave sleep and find it not. Save them from despondent thoughts in the darkness. May they learn to lean on Your all-pervading life and love so, their souls may grow tranquil and their bodies may rest.

-- Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), American Baptist minister and social reformer, one of the founders of the Social Gospel Movement