I Had a Thought

I had a thought, and it was in the night, half way between my sleeping and a dream: and it was valuable. Could I but write it down correctly, clearly, things would seem completed in some areas sages left ambiguous, uncertain or ignored. It was a thought so brilliant and so deft (as I remember it!) rather like a chord found transcendent after aimless long toying with piano keys or strings; or like a stag, large and intensely strong that from a hidden crevice suddenly springs to a peak and startles all around by being more important than the sky. I marveled, then, that it had not been found long ago, it was so plain, and I so easily had found it! Then I woke. In the cold impersonal light of day the thought I valued writhed like wisps of smoke through acres on acres of trees, and slipped away. Since then, though I've tried, I've found no laws to corner it, or to suggest its shape. And I am tantalized, wondering what it was, and troubled by the ease of its escape....