I like the phrase and agree with the idea:
Charles Baxter says that we write to make sense of the widowed images in our lives. Widowed images. Startling images. Haunting images. Whatever you want to call what ends up clogged in our imaginative filter. We don’t always know why they’re important, but for whatever reason, our mind won’t release them.
-Benjamin Percy, Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction, p. 41
Like Paul, who said, “Woe is me, if I do not preach the gospel,” I can say, “Woe is me, if I do not write.” ~ and with John who wrote and his joy was complete.