“I don’t know what makes me write anything. Many of my songs are imagined. They come from somewhere. This song is not literally about going to the doctor to get my eyes fixed. It’s a little more glib than that,” — Jackson Browne in a recent WSJ interview about his successful early song “Doctor My Eyes”

It is an interesting song. I don’t really know much about Browne but really liked two of his songs. This one and “Somebody’s Baby,” which is used famously in the 1980s movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Anyway, the above quote makes a true point about creative writing, that sometimes it is just releasing energy and memory and a bit of imagination.

“Somebody’s Baby” is used in the film as the main character has a brief physical romance as a teenager before meeting a man she really likes. It is unclear in the film if she stays with the last man but at least seems happier.

Browne is right. I currently write some poetry, but it is hard to tell where it comes from. Sometimes it just seems like a combination of a bit of memory, a bit imagination, and grammar. It is almost involuntary for me.