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, February 23, 2017

Stealth, to steal away


from this week in February 2003  (I was 58)

Stealth, to steal away
a solitary dislocation, a remove
to claim privacy as absolute
I have always needed and arranged
in frequent but brief intervals
Not a cup of coffee but a walk in the woods
Ice skating in the dark on a night too cold for others
From some place gone long enough
to become unreal as a minor myth

No comments:

Post a Comment