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.


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Monday, September 5, 2016

I changed my opinion of you


from this week in September, 2015 (I was 70)

I changed my opinion of you
when you turned away from the ocean
You stood under the palm staring up the mountain
Such is the place with no third choice
I was there to see you begin the slow ascent
No one seemed to notice your discreet departure
You reached the shadows of the trees
without turning another head
You changed tack to come up the fall line
cast away the anchor catch the wind
I watched you breathe and imagined the scents
fragrant pine eucalyptus camphor and myrrh
I changed my opinion.
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