I wake up cold, I who Prospered through dreams of heat    Wake to their residue,    Sweat, and a clinging sheet.     My flesh was its own shield:    Where it was gashed, it healed.  I grew as I explored    The body I could trust   Even while I adoredThe risk that made robust,A world of wonders inEach challenge to the skin.I cannot but be sorryThe given shield was cracked,My mind reduced to hurry,   My flesh reduced and wrecked.I have to change the bed,   But catch myself insteadStopped upright where I am   Hugging my body to me   As if to shield it from   The pains that will go through me,         As if hands were enough   To hold an avalanche off.ENJOY MORE The Ceylon Press publishes a range of podcasts including The History Of Sri Lanka; the off-grid Jungle Diaries podcast; Island Stories, the podcast that explores what makes Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan; the Wild Isle Podcast: Stories from Sri Lanka’s Nature; a range of complete Audio Books about Sri Lanka; as well as Poetry from The Jungle.  All these, along with eBooks, dictionaries, guides and companions can be found at www.theceylonpress.com, based at The Flame Tree Estate & Hotel in the jungle northwest of Kandy: www.flametreeestate.com.   The copyright of this podcast recording is David Swarbrick @The Ceylon Press 2025.  POETRY FROM THE JUNGLE GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE COPYRIGHT CREDIT:  Thom Gunn, “The Man with Night Sweats” from Selected Poems. Copyright © 2009 by Thom Gunn.

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