In the Third Sleep: In the Third Sleep

Tuesday, January 27, 2026

In the Third Sleep

Conor Mc Donnell

(after Kay Sage)

I see your first sleep has no shadow:

Tiny-house horizon-bent, isolant from runway-vein

Your second sleep sits silent. Origami-

beasts merge-emerge on aircraft-carrier deck

In the third sleep, vanished leviathan.

Bindings slipped and cast away for swan-dive

into desert. Come Sunrise, sea-monster swims to next horizon

in the third sleep

EKPHRASTIC POEMS CURATED BY PAUL VERMEERSCH

From 2010 to 2014, I curated a blog where I invited poets to write ekphrastic poems responding to, and titled after, Arshile Gorky’s 1944 abstract expressionist painting “They Will Take My Island.” You can look at the project here: https://theywilltakemyisland.blogspot.com

Then, from 2015 to 2018, I did a similar thing challenging poets to take on J. M. W. Turner’s Romantic painting “Sunrise with Sea Monsters.” You can visit that project here: https://sunrisewithseamonsters.blogspot.com

Now, I'm inviting selected poets to respond to Kay Sage’s 1944 surrealist painting “In The Third Sleep.” The parameters are simple: the poem must be called “In The Third Sleep,” and it must respond to, engage with, or build on some element of Kay Sage’s painting, but it should not merely describe her painting. Beyond that, the poem can take any form.

“In the Third Sleep” is in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, and you can visit it online here: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/53237/in-the-third-sleep

Paul Vermeersch