Regarding Installing Buttons

When I get an idea, which isn't such a rare event,
but fleeting more and more as I age,
I cannot always write it down at the time.
Sometimes I am in the shower, or in yoga class.
Sometimes I am driving, or on the phone, or both.

Most often when my mind is empty
Thoughts and ideas come to visit
But cannot sit down or stay for tea.
They knock on the door and say hello,
Or sometimes just ring the bell and run
Like prankster children, cartoon cows, ghosts.

They pass by a veiled window where I
Catch just a glimpse or an outline,
A shadow, not even a clear image,
Just a whiff of some olfactory specter.

So when I'm in a place where I cannot take notes
Can't jot even a single word or sketch some icon
I use a trick that I learned from Alyosha Karamazov,
The actor in "Juggling and Cheap Theatrics,"
When he was on stage and performing but
Needed to remember an idea, a note or thought,
He would choose a spot on his body and
Install a button, then park the information there;
Think of the thought, press the button
And store it in that part of the body.
Later when he needed to retrieve the idea,
He would press the button so the information
Would be released back into consciousness.

It works when I remember to do both parts,
Both installation and retrieval.  Otherwise
I sit and wonder what was that great idea I had,
Then I scratch my nose and think of something
random and unrelated to anything relevant.
Or when I get a massage, images float up
Like bubbles from the deep, hover near the surface
Then drift off, mingling with the cool air, gone for good.

~Andrine de la Rocha

posted 8/3/2011