When sleep gave me sleep I slept.
I never forgot what I learned.
I recalled the flame, the heat, the smoke,
The ash, and, in the dark, everything that had burned.
All that vanished I kept.
All I lost, I knew;
It was inclusive and deliberate,
From the small additions to the large loss of you.
Love will give you things
And then those things will drift away
But love gave you those things,
So those things do not go away.
When sleep gave me sleep I slept.
And every dream named as lost, I kept.
When sleep gave me sleep, I slept.
I slept better and better, night after night,
Each night, better in my memory, and better, much better, the light.
When sleep gave me sleep I slept.
That little box by my bed? Look and see what I kept.