Tonight while watching PBS news about a new movie called "Patterson", I had a great idea for a quilt. It was inspired by a phrase used during this segment about a movie, poetry, and William Carlos Williams (a favorite poet of mine who wrote a famous poem called "Patterson"). I was so enthralled by the possibility beginning in my brain and also fascinated by the new movie that I didn't write anything down. Not the phrase, not the image on the TV screen, not the glimmerings in my mind, not one single thing.
What am I left with? Not what the TV was beginning to inspire but a new idea for a quilt based on the loss of the other. The work may bear the title of this entry and may be another Improvisation in White.
I didn't write down what was going through my mind when watching that TV show so that idea is gone. It was too new and too fragile to leave even an echo of itself so I have to accept it's gone for good.
But something else has come in its place as I searched for the first idea, and I used this platform to write it down. It's the writing things down that is important for me to do. However, it is also important for me to realize that even though one "gem of an idea" has left the station, another one is coming in. My memory, being easily distracted, doesn't hold onto things as well as it used to, but like an aging, dim photograph, it may leave an almost-there image from which a new interpretation of the picture can emerge.
Of course, I could learn the lesson and write immediately!
yes, writing things down immediately is a good idea. But then it could have distracted from what you were watching. I'm sure it will either pop back into your head at some point - or another equally or even better idea will !!!
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