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 12, 2016

Slow erosion has a polishing effect


September 12, 2010  (I was 65)

Slow erosion has a polishing effect
flowing water sliding snow and ice
tumbling stones wind blown dust
scraping branch of adjacent tree
metal sliding across metal
bones in dirt
Friction smoothes the differences
when there is no consciousness of time
no desperation of a single passing life
Getting even can take centuries
mountain to molehill
glacial stare to tepid contentment
retribution of ancestral wrongs
Wise pearls begin in irritation
swimming in gall
most often never recognized
nor appreciated by the carrier
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