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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Friday, August 11, 2017

Now that I’ve spent much time doing little


August 11, 1992  (I was 47)

Now that I’ve spent much time doing little
there seems to be quite a bit less to do
A life of intense sporting pre-occupations…pastimes
The stunning arrogant occupation of teaching
is now humble efficiency –a way to get a little money
unencumbered by much moral compromise
The teenaged knight of Catholicism
tries to be a good guy now
and succeeds on isolated occasions

Sooner or later the kids need less watching
and start to watch you with some chagrin
that every age they are you’ve already been
Everything I learn about the world
makes the world bigger and life smaller
I’ve read too much to understand anything
can’t even make a long distance phone call from a pay phone
Good thing there is nobody I want to call
I never knew ambition and would never consider him a friend
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