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A few months ago someone on Twitter/X posted a George Simic poem. I did ask which collection it was from but didn’t receive a reply. I was so fascinated by the poem that I bought Hotel Insomnia but somehow none of the poems spoke to me like that one did. Why? I have no idea.
Despite this, I’m glad I read Hotel Insomnia. There are some gentle poems that whisper of that other poem. The collection is divided up into three parts, simply entitled One, Two and Three.
From One, my favourites are The Congress of the Insomniacs, the powerful Stub of a Red Pencil, Clouds Gathering (my favourite of the whole collection) and Place at the Outskirts, below:

“Gods trying different costumes
In the kitchen of a darkened restaurant,
Then emerging one by one
To serve you.

For the moment, just a glass of red wine
At the table with a view of the empty street,
A row of abandoned buildings,
And the cloudless evening sky.

The philosopher in you says:
The world is a beautiful idea.
Aphrodite with arms missing dressed as a nun
Waiting to take your order.�

The poems in Two didn’t grab me as much. I’m unsure why, except for Missing Child. From Three, Figure in the Landscape, Spring, Some Nights and my second favourite The Old World. Here is the last stanza from At the Vacancy Sign:

“Late afternoon sunlight
With one golden dead fly
On the table .
And the year unknown.
And the hour fugitive.�

Perhaps if I hadn’t read that poem on Twitter and instead come across this book out of the blue I would be giving it five stars instead of four. Mood and preconceived ideas are so important when it comes to enjoying what we choose to read. I’m very thankful though for this wonderful line from The Old World:

“Eternity eavesdropping on time.�