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!

Monday, July 24, 2017

Hawaii is what’s left of California


July 24, 2006  (I was 61)

Hawaii is what’s left of California
If you don’t believe me check da map
A place people come to be free
as they dare to be and still call it home
Minnesotan in a land of no flannel shirts
Carolinian trying to play Dixie on a ukulele
Utah missionary buying what he can’t convert
New York Jew tries to chew sashimi
Impressed Texan says sumnabitch! at Parker Ranch
Old Californian watches young Hawaiian fashion
flashing signs in designs from the LA hood
Wish instead he’d steal sumting good
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