ROMANCING THE MUSE

MIDNIGHT MUSE

My Muse comes after midnight
Nudges me awake,
Whispers urgently:
"Get up! Write!"
I curse her, stumble across the dark room,
search for matches, light the candle wick.
Where has she been in the daylight?
How many hours did I wait for her,
Listen for her to speak?
"Where were you?" I ask
"Was it your voice I heard
While I daydreamed in the sun?
Or was it only the sound
Of sheep bells on the mountain?"
"Write!" she demands. "Write!"
And I know
If I wait til morning
The words she whispers to me
Will be extinguished
Like this candle flame
as I snuff it out."

Written while living in a shepehrd's cottage, Lala, Euboeia, Greece

After that dismal start last week, things rapidly improved and much was accomplished.
First, I finished the corrections on my Rimbun Dahan article. Now I just have to find a home for it. Every one of my classes last week were dynamite, beginning with the workshop for novice writers I instruct on Tuesday nights, then the Prompting the Muse class on Wednesday, and finally my small but inspiring Memoirs group and the exciting gang in the Travel Writing class Thursday. Who couldn't feel inspired and uplifted by all that super energy?

I did some work on the novel, too, and although it was mostly research (which never ends!) I am making some slow but sure progress.

Friday I went shopping with my friend and bought two books. One is a beautifully illustrated book "Healthy Recipies from South East Asia" and the other, "Zorro" by Isabel Allende.
I was always a fan of the legendary masked hero Zorro and I'm also a fan of Allende's novels, so I couldn't resist buying it even though it adds to the stack of my TBRs which seems to be growing instead of diminishing. (I'm not riding the buses so much at this time so my pleasure reading time is cut down.)

Allende says that as a young child she was in love with Zorro. Like me, she and her friends played at Zorro games and watched the Zorro films. So when she was commissioned to write about him, at first she hesitated (becuse she doesn't write from commissions) but then agreed.
I'm looking forward to delving into the life of this swashbucking hero. He ranks along with the pirates I used to read so much about. In my imagination I was one of them! (And by the way the pirate t-shirt I bought in Malaysia is making a big hit every time I wear it!)

I had a very enjoyable weekend, from dancing salsa on Friday night to hanging out at home last night putting together my photo-scrapbook about Malaysia. Today I'm having lunch and dinner with friends and in between my novel awaits. I feel in a much happier frame of mind now, thanks to the Muse. It should be a good week ahead!

"...But the Muses loved me.
For my suffering they gave me a honeyed gift:
My name survives me, Thanks to the sweet Muses..."

Leonidas of Tarentum 290 - 220 BC
"From the Greek Anthology" 1973 translated by Peter Jay, ed. no. 189