A Cliché a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I'd never quite realised the close relationship between exercise and creativity; until yesterday morning, that is, when I wrote a poem about the Death of Icarus. I've always maintained that a good walk in the country clears my head and helps me write, but I've ascribed the creativity to the air, the surroundings, the fact that I'm out of the house and there are new sounds and sights and that all aggravations, obstacles and tedium related to the working day have been left behind. But I've never considered, for one moment, that it's actually the exercise that is the source of inspiration.

Until yesterday, when - after 20 abdominal crunches (and those of you reading this that know me, please stop laughing now - I do take exercise. Just not often enough!) - I sat up, rushing slightly from the influx of blood to my brain, and thought "what would the onlookers have made of Icarus?" That was followed by an intense period of sitting and scribbling, after which the poem was laid out before me.

And now I think about, I realise that I was a fool not to ascribe creativity to exercise. One needs mental exercise to keep writing - it takes thousands of hours to become good at anything after all. And the idea of 'healthy body, healthy mind' has been floating around for centuries. So now I shall be taking note of all aphorisms and clichés and making use of them. I shall look before I leap, eat an apple a day to avoid the doctor, not count my (metaphorical and, perhaps one day, literal) chickens before they are hatched, look for silver linings in clouds (and crowds) and investigate the exact value of every bird that I chance to clasp in my hand. And, of course, get more exercise.

At some point, I may even have time to write poems and fit it all in to a full working day too...