Sometimes you can do nothing about it. Unbidden a phrase or a sentence will pop into your head and not let go. It could be something new, or the need to change something old – but let’s hope not borrowed!!
Today gifted me one of those mornings. Reeling a little from a writers’ group the previous evening, the ‘under-performance’ of something I had written – like an athlete nowhere near a personal best – demanded a little surgery, and something told me it couldn’t wait…
There’s a fine line between inspiration and desperation, I find. And self-doubt is never very far behind.
And then, out of nowhere – fuelled by an early coffee perhaps – another first line. Will this prove liberation or millstone?
through the attic Velux a pre-dawn silhouette punctured by marquisette lights the contours of the landscape blurred in a monotone wash of Payne’s Grey the clock ticks the taunting of a playground bully knowing they are beyond the law or are the law I wait for the sunrise for something to arrive or go away in more refined brushwork shades of viridian and ochre will elbow out the grey their high-res definition still evading capture I put down my pen often things are easier in a pre-dawn silhouette punctured by marquisette lights
Ian Gouge - Writer 