NBJ

There's always the question of when do you not have permission to not do something you have not been told whether you can or can not do it.

Understand?

The poet himself has given me some of the advance on his next book, and has not banned me from talking about it. But, does that mean "Say nothing" or "Say anything" or "Use your judgement"? Ah, decisions.

Don't get me wrong, I like his most recent books, I just feel that he needs a worthy successor to "The Compleat Panther Cycles" so people will stop talking about that book as if it were a life's work. Yes, it is monumental and incredible. Over six hundred poems. Defiant and confessional, sad and erotic, all at once (I can only imagine what the Panther was like in bed).

But he has written hundred, thousands of works since he wrote those poems. It has been almost a decade since he wrote his last poem in those cycles. That's a lifetime, if you're ten years old. I know he's been laid since then, although mostly badly, from what I hear.

"NBJ" (my nickname for this project, as the proper name for the book will be "Night Blooming Jasmine", regardless of whether he decides to go with "Inamorata" instead) can be that book. He just has to relax, breath deeply and bring it, again.

We shall see, indeed, what this man is made of. And Jaz (Jasmine), thank you for inspiring him so incredibly. Now, keep him out of mischief for the next few decades.