If inspiration strikes … do you take advantage or tuck it away for a rainy day?

I once had a piano teacher who told me that if ever I was motivated to write music … I should! Just do it, he said! If it’s three in the morning and inspirations strikes … sit at the piano and just write it.

I tried.

Unfortunately for me, I could never do it. I can read music, but writing it is an altogether different experience. I couldn’t feel the music or let what was on the five blank lines translate to my fingers. I don’t play by ear either, but I can read it like reading a book.

Poetry is the same way.

I am not a poet. I’m told I write ‘poetically’ but I can’t put stanzas together and make them feel and mean something. At least not on purpose.

One morning though, I had this little moment of enlightenment. Of what? Nothing. I just woke up. Like a light switch, my mind turned on, and ten minutes later, I wrote this:

That Moment

You know that moment?

When you suck in air as if you haven’t breathed in hours,

Sweat trickles down your neck,

Your entire body shudders, muscles tensing, straining, poised

For something you cannot grasp.

When sight and sound,

Touch, taste,

And smell

Merge

Somewhere between life and death,

Awake and sleep,

Today and tomorrow.

When you know you’ve died,

Yet around you,

Life begins.

And it hit me. It was a poem. I wrote a poem. Not a novel. Not a short. Not a novella. Not a flash piece. Just a poem. That’s spurred a story of course, but not one I’ll write right now. For now … you get … my poem.

Let inspiration hit … at any time. Whether it’s music or poetry, cooking or an activity you want to do. Don’t let your own preconceived notions about yourself hold you back. Jump on it. Do it.

Happy Thursday!