We shall walk through the valley
We shall walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
We shall walk through the valley in peace.
This was Leadbelly singing his take on a slave spiritual.
Here, east of the Rockies, there are fewer bright days than I am used to, and people cover their windows.
When I was a child in that luminous place, living in rooms with large windows open to the sky, there was darkness in the corners. I too was enveloped in gray, even when I left the house.
When I moved I expected to remain enveloped in gray, but I found my apartment was as luminous as the outdoors.
Later on, armed with bravery and innocence, I examined the darkness lingering in my closets with a bright, artificial light. The shadows grew larger than they had ever been, and occupied a central room in my house.
When negotiations failed, I fought the shadows with a sword. When I lost, and retreated to other rooms. The room now held by the shadows, also contained my books.
More recently, I began to advance on the room again. In stealth attacks, I carried away some of my books.
I was wounded in the last and most daring attack I made. It seemed that the darkness would now engulf me. With no reference books at hand, I started posting on this blog, calling on bright gods.
Now, in the corners, there is only dust, which I am taking up with a dust mop. I see only light.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I love it when you’re in the zone.
:^)
Graz, CS, and yeah. I used to have a policy of posting only from the zone. This has been messed up over the past few months, for reasons both good and bad. The bad ones, you know about already. The good ones: (1) as with everything, it takes a lot of non-zone to get to zone, and I’m getting braver about showing the seams, and (2) the ANTI-zone stuff (which, of course, isn’t just plain old humdrum non-zone, getting-to-the-zone stuff) is almost gone. Pretty soon, it’s going to be much more full-on zone, punctuated, of course, with some irresistible bites from the news! 🙂
Zone writing, yes, me too. However: it isn’t inspiration. It comes from either writing really slowly, or going through many drafts.