An insight into technique by a superb poet, using a wonderful metaphor.  Time fixes colours, in words as in paints, and you should let your work dry before you alter it. 

And decisions?  Might the same principle apply?

Poems, like water-colours, should be left to dry properly before you alter them – six months or six hours according to the paints you use. 

Source: Lawrence Durrell, Reflections on a Marine Venus (London: Faber & Faber, 1960), p. 48

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