195/365 another thing about hospitality and me

Summons by Robert Francis

Keep me from going to sleep too soon
Or if I go to sleep too soon
Come wake me up. Come any hour
Of night. Come whistling up the road.
Stomp on the porch. Bang on the door.
Make me get out of bed and come
And let you in and light a light.
Tell me the northern lights are on
And make me look. Or tell me clouds
Are doing something to the moon
They never did before, and show me.
See that I see. Talk to me till
I'm half as wide awake as you
And start to dress wondering why
I ever went to bed at all.
Tell me the walking is superb.
Not only tell me but persuade me.
You know I'm not too hard persuaded.

This is probably my favorite poem. You know I'm not too hard persuaded has crept into my language, long ago, after my first reading of this in high school. It's true, too. I'm not too hard persuaded. Sometimes I take a while getting to the point that I'm half as wide awake, it takes me a bit to come out and really say what I want to say (believe it or not based on reading me here and there). But I will. Recently I've reread this poem and see it as a mirror in front of my human relationships. Come and bother me and make me light a lamp and make you tea and find that frozen box of thin mints and talk to me to keep me in community because you know I'd be no good as a hermit. I need you and I'm game. An open house is vibrant, alive. I want that. Not too hard persuaded.