THE DREAM TRAIN

Original poems to read at twilight, at bedtime, and after.

Taylor sticks largely to traditional nighty-night topics and tropes, from sleeping animals, the moon, and the sound of rain to the titular train and (with a proper nod to Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The Land of Counterpane”) the transformation of rumpled bedcovers into an undiscovered country. Given the plethora of sleep-themed poetry titles out there, this one may not stand out on a crowded shelf, and the soporific tonality does suffer some interruptions—notably in a catalog of “Sleep Stealers” (“And, just when your eyes / fill with flickers of sleep, / they’ll set off a car alarm / out in the street”) and verses about a “Cave Bear’s Snore” (“A volcano’s pretty scary. / So’s a lion’s roar”)—but overall Taylor makes effective use of rhyme, rhythm, and repetition to weigh down young eyelids: “Moonrise. Bat flies. Night skies. Sleepy sighs. / Teddy eyes. Beddy-byes. Lullabies. Shut your eyes.” Allepuz follows suit with twilit and moonlit scenes of drowsing wild creatures mixed with softly textured tumbles of family groups (including one with an adult using a wheelchair and holding a child on their lap) and variously hued children cavorting, getting ready for bed, or floating into dreamland beneath starry skies. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Not the most compellingly slumberous collection out there but adequate for the purpose.