It all began with a dream, a horrifying one about the intellectual Earth ridding itself of its infection called life. An apocalyptic scene was the aftermath of probing, mining, pollution and other ecological residue of human inhabitants. The planet eventually said “enough is enough” by responding with storms, fire, volcanoes and other natural destructive forces.

Port Townsend poet Gary Lemons woke up with an idea that he would later use to fill a book of prose, which eventually became a four-book series surrounding his existential questions explored by a character named “Snake,” through a series of books of prose that explores Lemons' own questions of existence.

“What started out as an apocalyptic vision of the end of the world as we know it, influenced by headlines and current events … has become more of a personal individual question of why we are here and how we can remain in the community with each other,” Lemons said of his title, “The Hunger Sutras: The Snake Quartet – Book 3.”

Lemons' first work morphed into the next of the series, simply named “Snake,” which centered on the the relationship between humans and the world they inhabited. It continued with “Snake: Second Wind.” When he was writing the first, Lemons didn't know he would continue after what he supposed would be a standalone work. The sequel continues Snake's journey as it looks at the loss of consciousness, Lemons said.

“We have this other life that is not physical,” he said. “It went from the end of the world, big picture, to the beginning of the next three books of why that all happened.”

The fourth of the series, due in 2020, is titled, “Snake: Original Grace,” and it looks for a resolution.

Lemons described the possibility of a “treaty with the planet so that when we are allowed back on her, we won't destroy her.”

Before readers can dive into the conclusion, they will have to read “The Hunger Sutras,” which shows how the goal Lemons proposed might not be possible only because the inherent nature of survival means the consuming of other forms of life.

“We can't live without Earth dying to support us, whether it's a plant or animal," he said. "It's a life form that must be sacrificed for us to live. The question that arises in the third book is, 'How can we ever expect to find a permanent grace with this design?' I can't answer that.”

With the third installment, Lemons doesn't look to promote any ideology. Instead, he draws attention to the elemental features of humanity and says injury is a necessity for mankind to survive. He also draws parallels to other harms, such as war, murder, torture and hate.

Lemons has been writing since he was 15. He earned his undergraduate degree in poetry from the University of Iowa. As he learned the craft, he studied other poets to help him learn the discipline. One of his mentors was Donald Justice, who shares Lemons' alma mater and taught him the vital lesson of writing every day to keep up his craft.

“That formal training, with 'Snake,' all of it evaporated,” Lemons said, adding that he continued to keep up the fundamentals of poetry but focused more on story rather than structure. “I take my personal experience to the frightening emptiness of the white page and allow myself the freedom to tell the story.”

Lemons sees the “Snake” series as akin to the epics of Homer's “Odyssey” and “The Iliad,” with shades of Dante's Inferno.

“Language is a song," Lemons said. "It's a musical form of communication."

The first element he looks at while he writes is how each word complements the other. He changes words from one syllable to two, or vice-versa, in order to create the effect of a song when read either silently or aloud.

While he wrote “The Hunger Sutras,” Lemons created its middle sequence of 35 pages using iambic pentameter. Lemons disguised its use, however, by erasing obvious traits of the metric line from it.

Although the character of Snake explores questions of existence, Lemons said it is mostly a narrative, as it takes the perspective of the character, “with the voices of the collective through her presence. She doesn't speak for a single standalone entity. She speaks for the disappeared.”

Lemons will celebrate the launch of “The Hunger Sutras” in his tradition of reading it at Writers' Workshoppe for about 20 minutes. He also will read from the fourth and concluding volume of poetry, “Snake: Original Grace.”