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, March 8, 2018

more from The Litanies of Mistrust


March 8, 2008  (I was 63)

more from The Litanies of Mistrust

Never Trust Jesus: 
to admire your car
to love your friends
to despise your enemies
to not spoil the child
to fear your old man

Never Trust Jesus:
to approve of an unconsidered life
to authorize a version of The New Testament
to congratulate the most clever hypocrisy
to honk at a car with a fish on the bumper
to fold when he holds a trey
to allow your dirty feet
 
Never Trust Jesus:
to expect you to be anything but a sheep 
to take the advice of Bo Peep
to speak clearly about sheep
to starve the ravens
to work harder than a lily
to not abuse your swine

Never Trust Jesus:
to join the Foreign Legion
to join the American Legion
to join the Legion of Decency
to say I am Legion
to say incense in the morning smells like victory

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