I don’t write in a journal everyday, but I have accumulated many entries over the past 50+ years beginning in 1966. Some items evolved into longer works. Among the leftovers little pieces survived. I thought a collection of these with a piece culled from the same date in a past year would make an interesting yearbook. The consistencies and inconsistencies of mind, skipping back and forth across time, provide varied perspectives. It is difficult to remember the context of the past we’ve lived; we also make suppositions about times that predate ourselves.

The few alterations from original drafts were to improve clarity. The worst of my work is not included. There remains enough mediocrity and immaturity to make me feel humble and you feel smart. There are also moments of accidental insight and incidental humor.

Author Stephen Crane referred to his little pieces as pills…apparently they were small and somewhat hard to swallow, but good for you.


Comments Welcome!

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

I planned for summer nights in a tent


August 23,2010  (I was 65)

I planned for summer nights in a tent
set up in the back yard
from where we could control the dark
and rule the infinite stars
until we died in a sleep from a fatigue
we thought we’d defeat until we could not
Stupid guilt for nonexistent crimes
stripped and robbed me of the times
left only rich when they could have been opulent
I do not know why we didn’t enact these schemes
that might have fulfilled our dearest dreams
now split into aged wonderings
how we could have lost such sacred plundering
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