I've written "North of the Sunset," "Little Rootie Tootie," and "Humph" recently, not to mention "Misterioso" and "Monk's Mood." The slow ballads are giving me some trouble. Too much pressure. I used my poetry amnesia idea in the "Green Chimneys" section.

I know I said discussions of process were dull. That's true. But I've found out a few interesting things while writing this long poem. Since the sections appear in alphabetical order, but I am not composing them in this order, the poem is developing "internally". For example, I wrote several sections using as similar voice or technique in the past few days, but they appear scattered in different places in the poem. The reader won't be able to tell what order the poems were written in, so this development is largely invisible.

.Also, I am not using all 70 titles of Monk's compositions, so I also have certain freedom to shape the sequence without "forcing the issue." When I get an idea for a poem that might be part of this sequence, I can see what title it matches up with best.

I once abandoned a similar project because I couldn't get any "traction." it was to be called "How I Wrote Certain of My Books." Maybe I'll come back to it some day.

The riddle has still not been solved: "What do you call Fra Angelico robbing a bank?"