In The Freeze, John D MacDonald (the pseudonym for Ken Millar) introduces us to this poem. My dad was a big fan of gumshoe novels, and I read anything I could get my hands on, including the 27th Precinct novels, Travis McGee, Lew Archer and Spencer for Hire, and MacDonald was amongst them. I would have read this poem in my early teens, and it stayed with me up until now, decades later.
So when I looked it up I was surprised to find that Jim Steinman had used it in one of his early works and not attributed it, and that hardly anyone appears to have known that it was MacDonald. I guess readers of hard-bitten detective stories from the 60's and listeners to popular music interested in the musician's early works don't often crossover!
Anyways, the poem's always stayed with me and I thought I'd use it as inspiration for the 17th - a little late, been busy for nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7un9d3shjtnyd968gmewwp6kyqpq2hlyqcgmc4736l4qutt5738yyvqhd663esl7vulkdewksuq7smrqm025tr (nprofile…25tr) 's birthday.
Rotring art pen and wash.
Here's the text if you can't read my writing.
If light were dark and dark were light
The Moon a black hole in the blaze of night
A raven's wing as bright as tin
then you, my love
would be darker than sin
#art #NoAI #Drawtober #Drawtober2026 #FountainPen #ink #Sketch #Poetry #JohnDMacDonald
