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!

Saturday, July 1, 2017

A dynamite blast shakes the town


July 1, 1976  (I was 31)

A dynamite blast shakes the town
If I were home I’d think the fault had shifted
5 point O on the Richter –I’d blame God
This shook the foundation
the concussion rattled the windows
even at some distance
like standing in front of a big pedal bass drum
If I’d a been in Berkeley
I’d a thought they got the Bank of America again
This is Keewatin
and that is iron ore
exploded in dry clots from the pit
lifted and hauled out in shovels trucks and trains
by sanguine physicians of the stainless steel economy
When I rumbled in with a noisy tailpipe
nobody even heard
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