HOW I LEARNED TO SLEEPWALK
When I was a teenager
one of my parents’ friends
told me, off the cuff,
I was good at analogies.
I was flattered. I wasn’t good
at school, English,
or grammar—but analogies.
I’d always thought
lots of nonsense, of course.
Every boy does. But that
might be the moment
I gave myself permission
to think nonsense.
What do you do
with bizarre thoughts?
Do you let yourself
think “nonsense”?
Is there space in your garage
for mixed or indecorous
figures of speech that
don’t mingle well with others?
If, after an afternoon nap,
“Toronto is a feral child”
pops into your head, do you retain it,
whatever is conjured by it,
hoping it will resurrect itself
later, on your nightly walk
beside the reservoir?
Or do you fling it away
as you would a prisoner
who won’t confess
down ancient iron stairs
to the solitary confinement cells?
Where do you bury the dead?
They say great stories
have no secrets. But we humans
fly several kites at once.
I eat while sleeping.
I dance, work, love, sing,
while sleeping.
I hunt the goblins that live
in the shadows
of the Forest of Clichés
while sleeping.
I fly several kites while sleeping.
Have I ever told you
you are good at analogies?
On your walk beside the reservoir
in the Dead Sea of the mind
past the shark nets of the mind
the Toronto child breaches
—an entire milieu out of the dark,
the harpoon of your attention
in her side, her eyes
three million lanterns flickering
and splashes
back into the water.
— The Missouri Review
Selected Poems Online
The Screaming Man. Tar River Poetry. 2025
What Happened in Savona. A Dozen Nothing. 2025
Their Beauty was the Envy of the Neighborhood. River Styx. 2025
Impossible Household. Canadian Literature. 2025
Your Suitors. The Windfall Room. 2024 (recitation)
Epiphany Song. Image Journal. 2024
Dreams of Scarlett the Red Dog. The Ex-Puritan. 2023
One Punch. Heavy Feather Review. 2023
How I Became a Sleepwalker. The Missouri Review. 2023.
How to Write a Savage Love Poem. Eunoia Review. 2023.
Insomniac in Center City. BoomerLitMag. 2023
Wolfness. Literary Matters. 2023
Rage Flowers. Sixth Finch. 2023.
The Hole in My Backyard. Plume. 2022.
Arsonist Song. Permafrost. 2022.
The human sat up in bed… Literary Matters. 2022.
I Received a Bitter Email from a Good-Hearted Man. failbetter. 2021.
Trained Bears. Literary matters. 2021.
Rais Bhuiyan Song. Literary matters. 2021.
How to Float. ONE ART. 2021.
It is Embarrassing, Almost Painful. Sixth Finch. 2021
The Triumphs of 1974. Plume. 2020.
The Narrow Road to Deep Marriage. The Maynard. 2020.
My Houseguest. Border Crossings / All Lit Up, 2020.
Distemper Song. Beltway Poetry Quarterly. 2020.
Child Soldier Song. Alaska Quarterly Review. 2019.
The Most Handsome Man in the Neighborhood. Literary Matters, 2019.
The Tongue of Allan Pinkerton. Prolit, 2019.
The Epic of Senge. Philadelphia Stories, 2019.
A Briefe & Marveyllous Hystory of Franklin. Literary Matters, 2019.
The Dismemberment of Philadelphia. Prolit. 2019
PC Song. The Awl, 2017.
The Problem with Love. Montreal Prize Shortlist. 2013.
The Stiltwalkers. Montreal Prize Shortlist. 2011.
Utøya. Malahat Review / E-Verse Radio, 2012.
On a Metro Gliding at the Edge of Jungles where Tigers Walked. Subtropics, 2015.
Crow & Fox in Love. The Puritan, 2016.
Last Words of the Old Man with the Photographic Memory. PRISM / Going Down Swinging, 2016.
An Old Man in Black Slippers at Rush Hour. Cortland Review, 2014.
Three Photos of Jayne Mansfield. Rattle, 2011.
Hypochondria Song. American Literary Review, 2015.
The Death of Jolly Dolly. Mudlark, 2014.
Festus, Hansel & Grendel. Literary Review of Canada, 2015.
The Prince with No Asshole. The Puritan, 2016.
Hydra. Literary Review of Canada, 2011.
Public Cremation. Asia Literary Review, 2012.
Tiny Pageants of the Soul. The Puritan, 2015.
Returning What was Stolen. Mudlark, 2014.
The Last Death. CV2, 2012.
The Falling Man. Forget Magazine, 2013.
People Came Back from the Other Side All the Time & Told Us But We Didn’t Believe Them. Mudlark, 2014.
John Wall Barger 