Reading:
Whatever comes to mind ‘Don’t use books. Start with whatever comes to mind!’ I used to tell my students. ‘Trust that with your life!’ It’s the same when I’m at work in my own studio. Some fragment from nowhere says, ‘Paint me.’ Or when I thought to try my hand at poetry A wisp from the past pleads that I remember. ‘I live only in that moment when I come into your train of thought. Your next idea will be my end. Are you really so unkind You would wipe me From your memory Just like that?’ An idea is a spark that flaunt its incandescence, Dazzling us with possibility as it upward flies. But dies as it descends, brightness dwindling, ember Already ash before it hits the ground. Don’t try to catch it as it falls though The wit and poignancy you sensed have gone. You must grasp it at the very instant it ignites; Then it might (just) have a chance to live on. Inspiration on its own is an effervescence That all too soon Goes flat.
Peter Lloyd Jones 