Image as irritation

I had lunch with Li-Young Lee about five years ago and he spoke about his writing process as "showing up at his desk every day" and "waiting for the soul to arrive". He also talked about getting an image or an idea but not writing about it until it had arrived in his conscious mind at least three times. I found this interesting because I generally get an image or an idea and just "take it out for a test drive" or plant a seedling (a file with just the image or line) until it grows. Once in a while, however, I'll have an image (usually coupled with a feeling or idea) and I wait until it becomes such an irritant that I cannot *not* write about it. I've had this feeling for several days now after the cold snap, when snow turns brownish and accumulates on the mudflaps and wheelwells of cars and then falls off when they park in a garage. In an empty garage, seeing all these mounds of dirty snow reminded me of my boyhood, when visiting relatives and watching them milk cows in the barn. After they were done milking and the cows put back out to pasture, the stalls where they had been were, of course, covered with piles of dung. That association plus the idea that I am the first generation of my family for the last 125 plus years that has not farmed. I'm going to title this poem "The Farmer's Grandson," but I'm just curious if any else has experienced this kind of irritation. My gut feeling is that every poet has at least one process of writing where this occurs.