April is National Poetry Month! Project Sleep is proud to highlight poets and poetry from our community throughout the month of April. Curated by Ana Lara.
Ernest C. Knight is a writer from Michigan living with narcolepsy. His writing consists of children’s books and essays, as well as article commentary. His early forms of writing were based on hypnagogic hallucinations, lucid dreaming, and sleep paralysis episodes.
Ernest went without a diagnosis for 36 years. He hopes that he can help raise awareness through his writing and poetry so that others can find a diagnosis sooner.
“This poem is titled, ‘HELLO.’ It concerns cataplexy and sleep paralysis, and tries to cope with the panic that ensues.” – Ernest C. Knight
Thought for a moment
I woke up dead
But still alive
Within my head
No muscle movement
There of course-
Alive, awake,
Inside a corpse
“I did this picture to help describe the surrealistic dream state that people with narcolepsy often experience. What is ‘up’? What is ‘down’? I feel like I exist in more than one world. I realize that what I experience is a neurological phenomenon. I went without a diagnosis for 36 years. It was a struggle that I would hope to alleviate for others in a similar predicament. The name of the poem that goes with ‘Escherish’ is, ‘Am I alone, ALONE?’” – Ernest C. Knight
A Celtic Knot
The works of Escher
How can they be?
A visual paradox,
Sometimes a pleasure
Sometimes, insanity.
No ending,
No start-
Just symmetry
But where’s the heart?
No one here now,
Just me
Symmetrical insanity
My company
Thank you, Ernest, for sharing your poetry. Connect with Ernest on Facebook. Stay tuned – more poems from this incredibly creative community coming soon!
1 Comment. Leave new
Thank you Ernie,
Hello is one of my favorites. That first line I have felt more than once.