Intervals

 It is my duty to write but for that I must await inspiration, otherwise I could come out with any old rubbish, set it down and leave, fully satisfied with myself: ‘There, I have written. Let them read and be filled with my words” - not caring what kind of words they are, it’s enough that it’s just me at the other end of them. So anyway while I wait there is an imbalance, between you and me I mean. I could be sat here for days between sentences, waiting to come up with something, whilst you come along then and read it all in one flow and reap the harvest. Maybe I should get out a stopwatch, if I had one, and time the gaps so the reader could be made more aware of these intervals where on the surface perhaps nothing was happening, just me sat there doing nothing, but internally all this waiting and alertness or whatever was going on, and so if desired the reader can partake of those gaps in some measure to offset the imbalance. So for example you are made aware there was a pause of 17 minutes whilst I was waiting to come up with a next line, maybe it was quite an elusive subject, and so in communion with my act of creation you now also sit there for 17 minutes, or if that’s a bit excessive or inconvenient maybe a set percentage of the relevant time, and then you move onto the next line.

This sounds on the surface all very wonderful and idealistic but now that I’ve had one of those pauses I’ve been going on about I’m not sure how plausible it is really. For one thing I’d have to keep editing my piece after the in the moment fact of its production, and then sticking in new sentences between the original ones informing the reader of time gaps for him or her to follow. Even if the reader was ideologically and emotionally on my side, willing to play his/her/its part, it would surely be disastrous for the flow of composition, the creation itself. I’d never get anywhere. I’d probably be more lost in the world of time gaps than inspiration. That’s the thing about these utopian visions - you can get yourself tied up in all kinds of knots with them.