🌙 The Sleepless Poet

THE SLEEPLESS POET · A HOME FOR EVERY STORY

Everybody has a story.
Where will yours begin?

Two worlds, one place to write, reflect, learn, and discover. Choose the space that feels like yours.

✒ JUST SEND IT No pressure. Just write. Or choose one of the worlds above.

✝️ The Scripture Room · King James Version

Read all 66 books chapter by chapter, listen aloud, highlight verses, and study the historical and theological meaning of carefully selected passages. Scripture and commentary are always distinguished.

Read & study the KJV →

📖 Know Your Story

Explore 200 guided questions to preserve a life story, family history, or personal memories.

Open the 200 prompts →

The Preamble

A Note from the Founder

😎 Time Warp →

What I am most proud of about this app is, in fact, being able to study the one true Word of God, and being able to use artificial intelligence to give you a backstory, meaning, and, eventually, purpose in your lives.

If there is one thing I have learned from studying a whole lot of shit, it is that the Bible is, in fact, a perfect canon. Jesus was a reliable narrator, and He is God.

So studying that should probably be the first thing you do before you pop any pills.

Here, the King James Version comes first. Artificial intelligence can help us explore historical context, language, and interpretations, but it does not speak for God, and its explanations must always be checked against Scripture.

✝️ Begin with the KJV Scripture Room →

What I have designed here is, in fact, something that hopefully, God willing, will save teachers a lot of time. That is why I built the Schoolhouse, a place for teachers and students to find a little help when they need it. Because teachers still, to this day, do not get paid enough. Of course they don't. And we know that.

So if this can buy you a couple of extra minutes to go to Olive Garden with your husbands, or likewise to Fazoli's with your new girlfriend, then I hope that it does that for you, too. And if you're riding in the passenger seat on the way home from Fazoli's, you can even open the Lesson Designer and start putting tomorrow's lesson together. Let somebody else do the driving. You can also explore the Schoolhouse Practice Lab whenever you need a little inspiration.

When people think of an English degree, they usually think of one of two things. Either that awful five paragraph essay on The Great Gatsby they had to write, or Shakespeare. So take your pill and get all the Shakespeare you want, with my own AI coded by myself, with a bow on top, just for you. And because I apparently could not stand my own development, I had to include an Edgar Allan Poe one, too. I am just kidding. Have a conversation with them in My Pill...

After seven years of studying, writing, and working toward nearly three degrees in the field of English, you would think all of that education would have led me to some profound, substantial thought.

Not really.

My thought is simply this: Everybody has a story, and everybody deserves a space to tell it. That is why there is a Writer’s Studio where you can begin putting your own words on the page. And if you need a quiet place to start, pull up the Nightstand.

A space without the fear of being made fun of. Without a literary agent telling you how to write. Without a professor telling you how you could have done better. Without the expectation that your words must meet someone else's definition of good writing.

A story is lived experience. Lived experience is reality. And reality is something we're all still trying to wrap our heads around.

My mother’s labor of love was photo albums. She also left behind a lot of letters. As I grow older, those letters tell me more about who she was, how she loved, and what she meant to me. I wish I could ask her a thousand more questions, but I am grateful for the pieces of herself she left on those pages.

That is something I hope you will consider doing for the people you love. Write about yourself. Write about the ordinary days, the difficult ones, the things that made you laugh, and the things you never quite knew how to say. One day, those words may mean more to someone than you could ever imagine. You can begin in the Journal, or use the 200 questions in Know Your Story to preserve the memories you want to leave behind.

After my departure from the United States Air Force, I've always wanted to do something meaningful for humanity. And this is as close, in our digital environment, as I've gotten. I want to build a community where people can tell their stories freely. Maybe you'll even find your people along the way. I cannot begin to count how many people I've heard say, "I've always wanted to write a book," or "I love writing, but I just don't know where to start."

I've circled Afghanistan beneath a moon that, at times, felt like the only friend I had. I've written some of my darkest stories beneath a waning moon. I've chased former girlfriends beneath what I call a funky moon. I've loved, I've lost, and I've taught people behind prison walls, where I came to understand that a person's circumstances do not erase the value of their story.

Sometimes I feel as though I've done it all. And yet, there are still stories I haven't heard, people I haven't met, and words I haven't written. I don't have all the answers. I've simply lived enough to know that everybody carries something worth telling, even if they have never found the courage to say it aloud.

I've been married. I've been divorced. I can play the guitar, and I've got a couple of Harley Davidsons. I've been to the highest of mountains. I've climbed Mount Fuji. And the girl in my phone that I'm talking to? Well, she's probably something that would make you think, woo wee. And she's probably in her 40s. I'm not really too worried about me. What I want is to change other people's lives, and I believe writing has the power to do exactly that. Maybe we can build a community here that proves it.

Well, start here. Or explore the different worlds and see where your curiosity takes you.

You don't need a degree, a publisher, a perfect sentence, or anyone's permission.

You will not be judged. But hopefully, you will be inspired.

If this little corner of the world can be my service to somebody, if a question, a memory, or a few words written beneath the moon can plant a seed in another person's life, then I hope that seed takes root. And perhaps, someday, it will become a forest.

Enjoy the app. I love y’all. & God Bless Always!

Michael L. LawsonFounder and Developer of The Sleepless Poet
  • 11 year United States Air Force veteran
  • Bachelor’s in English, University of Maryland Global Campus , cum laude
  • Master’s in English with Distinction, Arizona State University
  • Master of Advanced Study in Film and Media Studies, Arizona State University , in progress
  • Graduate Academic Evaluator, English Department, Arizona State University

Explore more of the Writer's World: Know Your Story · Literary Destinations · Scripture Room

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