Weird. I’ve just had one of those strange moments where a series of coincidences leads you to ponder whether there’s any such thing AS a coincidence. Here’s what happened:
Last night, as I lay half-awake in bed, an image came to me, which my brain instantly started teasing out into a poem. The metaphor was so strong that I was sure I would remember it in the morning. But, as every writer knows, those late-night and mid-night flashes of brilliance rarely remain in the light of day and thus it was for me. When I sat down to write my daily poem this afternoon I had a vague feeling that I’d begun a poem in bed last night, but no idea what it was about.
Earlier today, my son (Murphlet Four) did some origami and, amongst other things, made two origami bats, which he left on the dining table.
Then, this afternoon, the Murphlets have had Malcolm in the Middle playing on Foxtel. This is a show which never ceases to distract me from my work and, today, I’d half watched an episode involving a swarm of bats.
Afternoon tea time came and, as I sat at the dining room table the origami bats caught my eye. ‘Isn’t it funny,’ I thought to myself, ‘how such a coincidence happens.’ Out of all the animals Murphlet Four could have made, he’d made a bat, an hour or two BEFORE the bat episode was on the television.
Now, here’s the eerie part. Just as that thought crossed my mind, last night’s poem came back to me. My late night head-poem was about bats in a mango tree! I jumped up, came back to my desk and started writing – and the poem was still there. Now, I’m not especially fond of bats, and have never written about them before – so what alignment of the universe cased me to create a poem about them late last night, Murphlet Four to make two bats out of origami this morning, and an episode of Malcolm In the middle featuring bats to show on the television this afternoon?
Whatever it is, I’m grateful for the latter two because, combined, they led to my recapturing that late night flash of inspiration.