Have you ever had a great thought and let is slip away?

Thoughts drip one by one
Like fresh coffee
Percolating
.
Write it Down
Or its Gone
— Haiku
.
Words on a paper
In my pocket
Gently laundered
— Bashō no yōna, December 2024

Lost and Found

I lost the book long ago, but kept the memory.

Long ago, one summer, between college semesters, while traveling in Europe, I came across a book on a train somebody left. It was a well worn paperback copy of Arthur Koestler’s, The Act of Creation. In a nutshell, the idea was that the creative process consists the interplay of the seemingly unrelated ideas. A left and a right brain sword play. The strike of steel on flint to create a spark of inspiration.

The idea of idea forming held true whether the task was artistic, scientific, or comic. It’s not new unless you look at something from a different point of view. Take an apple, smell it, cut it, cook it or bake it. Let it ferment, you’ve got cider.

The process can occur while brewing a cup of coffee in the morning, or walking the dogs in the park in the afternoon, or lying in bed, trying to sleep, dreaming.

It is a dance between imagination and logic. Let emotion lead and logic follow. One must be willing to play the child and be different.