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, November 9, 2017

Cold Mountain retreat


from this week in November, 2014  (I was 69)

Cold Mountain retreat
retirement lair
Luck has me in a comfortable cave
I get warm but not often hot
sometimes cool but sheltered from frost
I shun the absolutes
They pay me no attention
A pension I have discovered to be sufficient
The zealots climb above into snow
The indolent sit at the fire below
Above me passion extinguished
Below me indifference inflamed
Hidden away temperate contemplation
elemental concerns out in the open
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