what began as a way of moving along time when i couldn't find sleep, eventually turned into a mind searching through the darkness for itself.

there is a point in zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance (paraphrasing and ad libbing) where a student complains of having nothing to write. the teacher says "look out the window at the brick wall - what do you see?" the student replies "very little." "look again. what do you see?" the student sees a little more. "look again. keep looking. there is always more to see." the student returns the next day with reams of seeing.

i remember vividly being entranced by hesse's siddharta. i read it over and over and what it said never grew tired. only later did i understand that reading and re-reading the book amounted to looking out a window. each time i saw something more.

that's what sleeplesssness, the book of poetry, is. it is a view out a window over and over and over and each time seeing a little more and a little differently. it is not about seeing it all. it never is. but it is about seeing something.