The words arrive
unexpectedly.
I try to prepare
in advance.

Keeping pens,
pencils,
notebooks,
and paper

in a room
designated
the “official”
writing space.

The place where
words and images
ideally arrive
and merge,

turning
ideas
into
sentences.

In reality,
writing happens
in any and sometimes
every room.

At any time
on trains,
planes,
grocery stores, etc.

Lesson learned.
Those words
may arrive
on time

(according
to
some
schedule),

but more often
words, inspiration,
images arrive
unexpectedly.

At the best
and worst times,
often in the midst
of everyday chores,

disrupting
the best intentions
of ever
getting organized!

 

Janet Cormier is a painter, writes prose and poetry, and performs comedy. Janet prefers different and original over pretty. She loves collecting stuff, but cleaning not so much. Janet also talks to strangers. A lot. Her column appears weekly on Oddball Magazine.