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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Thursday, March 30, 2017

Sunrise Litany


March 30, 1976  (I was 31)

         Sunrise Litany
At dawn someone always comes
to the church on the corner
the only one coming this morning
to climb each small step up to the heavy door
which holds the odor of prayer inside
the first to echo down the long aisle
the first to see which candles expired in the night
the first to dent the kneeler
the first to ask forgiveness
the first of the congregation to dampen a veiled forehead 
breaking into a sweat for the Lord
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