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, April 27, 2018

Morality of Homeland


April 27, 1979  (I was 34)

    Morality of Homeland
Does anyone remember
we do not come from here,
we are not of this place?
The thing that binds us
is what makes us all aliens
come no matter how long ago.

It is not necessary to believe
we are of this place
nor to believe we are
of the same place
nor to believe we will return there
when we leave here.

It is unnecessary to give a shit
we’re so many generations removed.
We were put here;
we did not make a choice,
so it’s okay if we fuck up the air
and the water and the ground.
It’s okay to pollute the fire
if that’s what we choose to do.

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