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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Tuesday, June 12, 2018

I had thought the world moved smooth


from this week in 1973 (I was 28)

I had thought the world moved smooth
but it’s all fits and starts.
Oh it probably pirouettes on its axis
and it probably takes a year around the sun.
What I’m talking about is progress.
When I was young progress was our important product,
and it was never an old product.
It had just been invented yesterday
or it had been improved today.
it started in a barrel,
proceeded through various cardboard boxes,
plastic containers and now comes in an aerosol can
which explodes if you heat it
poisons if you inhale it and irritates if it contacts.
If it doesn’t do it better, it is more convenient.
You would think all this would make movement smooth,
but it just seems to make standing still more comfortable
or unnoticeable.  Some even say we’ve digressed.
Now I hear Perfection is our most important product,
and when things are perfect, people will be happy.
Imagine that.

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