Discussing his creative process, Charles Simic says: “When you start putting words on the page, an associative process takes over. And, all of a sudden, there are surprises. All of a sudden you say to yourself, ‘My God, how did this come into your head? Why is this on the page?’ I just simply go where it takes me.”
Here he is paying close attention to something… then off he goes:
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/fork
Pay close attention to something, see where it takes you.