The Night's Palette

Poet Gary Snyder writes in, The Practice of the Wild, "Life is not just a diurnal property of large interesting vertebrates. It is also nocturnal, anaerobic, microscopic, digestive, fermentative: cooking away in the warm dark.

Examine writing ideas and notions that you have cooking away in the warm dark.

Celebrate the powers of the pen. Pay reverence to what's underneath, elusive, and uncanny.

Explore shadows, dreams, moonlight, and the depths. Catch reflections the instant before light moves into night.

Where do colors hide in the darkness.

As eyes adjust to night, how will other senses take over? 

Let sounds intrigue. Listen for a shish, wall creak, whirs, and rumblings.

Scents accost in cinnamon rolls and eucalpytus leaves.

Peel an orange and let the aroma find the night.


Feel cool and texture as fingers tap the keyboard.

Let curiosity out to play.

Use the night's palate to arouse instincts.