WHEN THE MUSE DEMANDS TO BE HEARD: WHERE NOVEL IDEAS COME FROM

Surely there are as many ideas about inspiration as there are poets and writers. Poets, I think, learn to trust their intuition: they often talk about "received gifts" and report that they are no more than a scribe for an inner voice, the amanuensis of the heart. I have certainly had this experience with my own poetry.

Over time I have come to value and recognize the importance of the unconscious. What stirs beneath the surface and always out of reach feels to me like the source of all poetry and fiction — like the raw material that the conscious act of writing, the craft of writing, shapes (with more unconscious input) into a finished piece.

I mention all this because of a recent, almost surreal experience. I woke up at about four Sunday morning with a character in my head who needed to be heard. Pretty soon he was joined my another. The two forced me out of the sack and to my laptop (but not without an intermediate stop at the coffee pot). By midmorning the two characters had been joined by four others. They had decided on a locale and a venue and began to interact.

The experience was a totally unearned gift from the Muse, one for which I am grateful and over which I continue to puzzle: why me? why now? what is my obligation to the muse and to myself? Am I being asked to set aside my ongoing projects? All questions which bless me.