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, March 8, 2017

Give him a chug off the old accordion


March 8, 1977  (I was 32)

Give him a chug off the old accordion
Squeeze him something nasal
Squeeze wide skirts and long stockings
aprons and kerchiefs
Tambouritzans with Serbo-Croatian names
Squeeze him miners who remember union battles
when more than wages were at stake
Pull out a polka Iron Mike
or give him Old Mary ironing
ironing ironing ironing
Give him the drunken wife
and he’s got to take her home
got to take her home
Give him a drunken wife and he’ll go
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