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!

Thursday, December 22, 2016

I had a job and finished it


December 22, 2012  (I was 68)

I had a job and finished it
seemed like it was taking forever
but forever isn’t really that long
I was sure I did it quite well
Now I’m sure others would disagree
but it’s over and I know it doesn’t matter
same as the stuff other folks did
To ascribe significance is a universal ignorance
ignoring what is obvious in any perception
To be sober is to be drunk
health but an illness of mind
talent a particular form of clumsiness
the humor of sorrow serious laughter
the peace of violence a silent explosion
Someone’s labor gets the ink off the paper
and back into the pen and the meaning
of that is inescapable
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