The idea
like a shy child
peeks from around a corner
hoping you will notice it.
If you’re too busy to pay attention
it fades away and you are left
trying to find the picture you can’t
quite bring to mind.
.
.
.
Twice this morning, while busy with something else, an idea fluttered up. Twice I thought, “Oh! That’s good. I must remember that!” and twice it disappeared into the ether. Darn. Darn.
Shawn L. Bird 
Reblogged this on By the Mighty Mumford and commented:
ONE PERSON CALLED THIS A BRAIN FREEZE. I’D IRREVERENTLY Call it a “brain fart”….and i’m getting more or them! If an idea comes…it’s easy to overlook and forget. That’s why I still get up to write at 2-5 AM!
“Once my heart was filled with the love of a girl/I held her close but she faded in the night/Like a poem I meant to write…” — Paul Simon, “Leaves That Are Green”
Oh, that Paul Simon.
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This is where technology more advanced than the pencil saves the day for me. If I can pause for 45 seconds, I can jot a memory jogger in my smartphone WordPress app. If I have only 10 seconds to pause, the memory jogger goes on the voice recorder. All I need now is a memory jogger for the shower!
Nope. My shy ideas are too shy even to wait for me to reach into the purse or pocket for the phone. They just peek and vanish. By the time you take the second look so you know what it is and can record it, it’s vaporized.
Pen and paper handy.
(See responses to other similar comments!) lol
Notebook. Always have a notebook.
In both cases, by the time I walked away from what I was doing the idea was already gone.
I didn’t have time to pick up a pen to write it down!
Very shy idea!
Sometimes, those shy ones get to thinking about it and come back.
I hope so! Not sure I’ll recognize them if they do, but I suppose that won’t matter. 🙂
Two-way shyness, from observer and observed, kills ideas and friendships alike- as does excessive forwardness.
Mutual forwardness does a great deal to cut out wasted time!
Liked it!
Thank you!
I hate it if I’m laying in bed, an idea comes to mind– and too comfortable to get out of bed, I decide I’ll write it down the next day. It’s forgotten. There are times when I wish I kept a small tape recorder in the car for the same reasons. Very nice poem.
I do have the notebook by the bed, and the ability to record with a simple button while in the car, but still the shy ones evade capture! Feral cats would be another metaphor to explore!
Lol I can relate I leave pens all over the house and write on the walls. The frustration when they slip away is almost physically painful. So I try to comfort myself knowing the idea is not the only great one I’ll ever have. Thanks for stopping by the blog, and for the follow. I’ll have a look around. I like it here. 🙂
Thanks Susan! Welcome here!
All to common occurrence – ideas flitting in & out of my mind.
You ready for Camp WriMo? Not so sure I am – Eeeep
Won’t be doing it this July, as I’m doing TWO grad school courses for my Masters in THREE WEEKS during July. (Call me insane). I don’t expect to come up for air until July 24th. (I miss my birthday and 30th wedding anniversary in there).