A sleepless night. Thoughts of other pressures steamroll through my mind - bringing the cares of the day crashing into the space for sleep in their oafish and uncouth manner.

I twist and turn - hoping to find some way to settle, to flatline my alpha waves - the ones who clearly have too much time on their hands. The music from the radio is unable to calm the seas of my mind - so I try to step back and try a moment postmodern awareness, only for the waves to batter over the sea-walls.

Exasperated I grasp hold of a millisecond of thought - an image glimpsed in the miasma of my mind - the memory of a soft snuffle next to me and the touch of a hand. I stir myself and head down to grab a pencil and paper.

I stare at the page - searching for the forms that lived for a moment, adding the mechanics of existence, considering the meaning of form. I sketch, and measure, rethinking, then reverting - applying pressure then removing it on second viewing. Slowly my 2-D sculpture - my mind game of line and emotion reveals itself on the page.

Beneath the surface tension I find the torrent of emotion. I dig out images of now and then to grasp my flow of feeling, and express what has been burrowed under nerves and next to do.

A quick survey, and now I feel some relief. A quick message, and the moment is left for the morning. The surprise can wait.