I’m not even sure that my first kept poem—written in my mind late, near midnight, on April 12, 1964 a date, which in itself sounds prophetically poetic to my ear, when reduced to its numeric words: “four-one-two-one-nine-six-four”—was experienced as ‘a poem’.
It was the demonstration of the indwelling of inspiration from without—a place I knew not, nor previously experienced. It was a place of pure trust and acceptance. It has remained in me, is that place from which all inspiration comes—writing without knowing from whence the beginning comes nor when the end will arrive.
This technique or subconscious process that might then have been though of as ‘stream of consciousness’ is known today as ‘Writing Into The Dark.’ In poetry and novels I have been using this process since 1964. What a blessing. Thank you Lord, for the anniversary (April 12, 2022) of on-going inspiration which has led to a compilation of over 4300 poems.
Though I did, at some point, have a goal to write a thousand poem and when achieved I set out to equal the oeuvre of one of my favorite poets, E.E. Cummings, who was said to have written approximately 2900. But I didn’t stop there.
Perhaps amazingly, I came to prose through poetry. In 1999 a long poem led to the creation of my first novel, Jamaica Moon, published in 2009. Twenty-four have followed.
Now with the publication of my twenty-fifth novel, Red Sky, a goal I never set out to achieve—like poetry, I’ve just kept writing—I have arrived at a moment of reflection.
Should I keep writing about the Black Book Investigations of Michael Grant & Associates or start down a new fictive path with new characters?
That could happen. However, like each of my twenty-five previous novels, the inspiration and genesis for the next book (#26) has already become a reality. It will be a prequel from a time when Michael had gone abroad on his first black ops mission and before he left the Dallas Police Department and started his private investigations and security consultancy.
We will, I think—depending on what the characters say and do—learn a lot about a much younger Michael Grant, W.T. Atherton, Jim Jamison, and Michael’s first wife, Elanna (Devereux) Grant.
As foreshadowed in Red Sky, the yet to be concluded action, re The Blue Laakhe cult, will hopefully find a resolution in book #26: Clown of Karakoram.
