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, September 15, 2017

In home movies more than sixty years ago


September 15, 2011  (I was 56)

In home movies more than sixty years ago
the family poses grouped as for a still shot
They don’t know what to do after the first click
keeps on clicking they look uneasy
Then they each wave their idiosyncratic salute
obviously on cue from the director/cameraman
as one by one they walk toward the lens
smiling as they are reminded in passing
leaving the frame which pans Grandma’s garden
The cameos are standard improvs
Grandma pointing to tomato plants blushing
The back screen door of his tavern opens
Grandpa steps out already looking older than he is
Young boy dons a leather football helmet
Young girl almost cartwheels on the lawn
Aunt Lucy turns to hide behind a tree
In the alley cars new then and humorous later
are classic relics now more well-remembered
than anyone who drove them

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