We’re looking forward to reading your poetry as part of our Rabbit Room Poetry Prism Contest—submissions are open through June 30! Our theme is “Word & World.” Find out all details and submit here.
By Mischa Willett
It wouldn’t even matter if I could sleep as in was capable since soon as I tuck in my son calls from his bad dream and I’m upstairs wiping his brow and saying how it’s okay so I trudge back down and arrange the pillow just right and my breath steadies till my daughter coughs and needs water downstairs to get it creak back up and I tell her it’s okay and I flop downstairs again and find my bed after and in it the baby upset by all this walking and creaking and I hear her and I pat her on the back and make wave sounds with my mouth telling her she’s okay and I don’t know if I am really I’m tired but I also feel guilty like I’ve won something huge, opulent and undeserved.
Mischa Willett has written poems, translations, and essays for Books and Culture, Chronicle of Higher Education, First Things, Comment Magazine, Front Porch Republic, and other such venues. A specialist in Romantic-era aesthetics, he is Director of the new MFA program in Creative Writing at Whitworth University. In This Gift Card Has Already been Redeemed, Willett follows up two previous critically acclaimed poetry books with this new collection that negotiates biblical worldview with contemporary poetics.
Send Us Your Poems!
We’re looking forward to reading your own poetry as part of our Rabbit Room Poetry Prism Contest—submissions are open through June 30! Our theme is “Word & World.” Find out all details and submit here.
Go Deeper…
Mischa Willett is one of the featured poets in An Axe for the Frozen Sea, featuring conversations with poets about essential questions of art, creativity, faith, meaning, and the well-lived life. Check out this inspiring collection at the Rabbit Room Store!
This poem is from Mischa Willett’s new book, This Gift Card Has Already Been Redeemed (Paraclete Press, 2026).
Photo by Hanna Balan on Unsplash
Reading this exhausted while my 5 month old sleeps (?) in the early morning after a night of fits and starts. Your poem caught my heart and gave me hope that someday, while I may not be well rested, I may find a way to actually articulate what such an exhausting blessing feels like. Thank you.
Love the poem, I remember those days ❤️