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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Saturday, June 23, 2018

At Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley


from this week in June, 2004 (I was 59)

At Happy Isles in Yosemite Valley
This morning I took a hit
contemplating travels of an entire year
a big year of geographical movement for me
I sat smoking in mid river
to realize again a truth of successful travel
Allow possession of self to place
See what the river is doing
what the trees are doing in relation to the river.
For a time be possessed by the river
the meandering the eddies the rills
the cataracts the swells the roar and trickle
of the moment sharing the this of it

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