Song Writing

Listen -- can you hear it? The sound of your voice reading this silently as the rest of the world fades? The hum of the vacuum cleaner down the hall. The cars outside and creaking floorboards and echoing footsteps. Growing fainter, fainter still.
There's nothing but the words now.
I'm sitting down with a pen and a blank sheet of paper, listening to the silence. Listening for something that isn't there yet. You have to forget everything on your iPod. Forget that jingle you can't get out of your head. Consider it lobotomized. It's time to start from scratch. From silence.
Ask any well-trained or well-traveled musician and they'll tell you -- song writing isn't about writing at all. It's about listening. Waiting. And wading through the mire of static around you until it disappears. Even the sound of your inner voice has to be gagged and bound and forced to listen. Really listen, that is. To and for nothing. Because inspiration lurks in silence. Strikes when you're least expecting it to then delves back into the abyss.
My hand struggles to keep pace with my inner dictation. The lyrics are pouring out now, and like a wary stenographer, I have to stretch my fingers and crack my knuckles every few minutes just to keep going. Keep listening.