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!

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Pleasanton Ridge Hilltop 3 Minimals


November 9, 2008  (I was 63)

    Pleasanton Ridge Hilltop 3 Minimals
Pond flanked by depth-measuring oak
Two teal occupy here part of each year
Level so low and reflection so green
the two have missed their season

Three stacked boulders
embedded like a pillar
in an oak trunk
posed this way certainly
more than a hundred years
elevated shelf seat
from which to write
Vulture shadow crosses the page

From stone throne regard persistent oak
trunk halved and long burnt
it smells of remembrance soft moss
iridescent reminiscence
Coyote alerts me then trails into trees
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