This paper explores how a particular idea that preoccupies me in criticism finds expression also in creative writing, and vice versa; it shows how, although the forms and modes of address of, say, a poem might differ from those of a piece of criticism, they share a great deal. I’m keen to move away from creative criticism as an in-between genre (institutionally, generically, etc.,) and move towards the two-for-one / both-and approach. The paper ties in with my current project about poetry and the ordinary: can poetry, with its tendency to epiphanise and promote and transmute - really be trusted with the ordinary? Can we add to the category of creative criticism, where the critical apparatus takes on some of the freedom, whimsy, loquaciousness and ranginess of the creative, the mirror-category of a critical creativity, where the creative might take on a problem-solving, self-scrutinising reflex, suspicions of its own élans and entitlements? What might such a thing (in this case, a poem) look like? I refer to examples of my own writing where a certain idea (noticing, or the ordinary) can be tracked from my poetry to my critical work to stuff in between, including lectures.