Where do words come from?

I'm grateful at least Linda and Colin would understand the question, though I know they don't know the answer any more than I...

Waiting for a late bus earlier in the gathering gloom and strengthening rain, a man passed me carrying two bottles of wine, a small tool box and an enormous spirit level, and I thought I'd while away the time penning a witty ditty about shopping this time of year... but that's not what the muse had in mind...

Table of contents

Good will come of this
in short measures,
Not long 'til
still
we smile,
a moment stated
before the next
desiring

I'm grateful that following one of the worst night's sleep I've had for years I resolved not to let how rough I felt spoil anyone else's day... Of course I've no idea if I was successful in this mission, but at least I tried.

I'm grateful despite my phone flatly refusing to pass on any of her messages saying she was outside, eventually I looked out of the window and let Jenny in...and that she gave my flat a good cleaning while I persevered with plan A and went into the city to pick up something on Laura's gift list. I was grateful for the rare opportunity to be of tangible assistance to a friend, instead of vice versa, but when I offered I'd no idea what an exercise in patience and virtue it would be, so I'm grateful for that as well. I've not been to Lush just before Christmas before, but the way people were being congratulated when they emerged reminded me of making it back to the highway after a scramble down to the valley floor on the Kokoda trail.

I'm grateful for a long hooded coat, takeaway teas and a Transylvanian chimney cake (no, I hadn't either - look it up!) to refuel without running the gauntlet of marauding hoards of holidaying hipsters steaming up the windows in all the cafés I knew.

I'm grateful for coming across an Alan Bennett tome in a charity to keep my mind occupied in the deadened days ahead. He'd probably understand the question too...