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.


Comments Welcome!

Sunday, June 24, 2018

Listen to the emanations from your empty shell


June 24, 2011 (I was 66)

Listen to the emanations from your empty shell
to the howling of those airless winds
There are voices that call only when you listen
Listen with the window open to the songs
of birds that may not be in the trees
though their songs have been for centuries
On your rock sit and listen to the streams
streaming over rocks then they flow
flow wider sound deeper and the light
plays through wet surfaces to shadow
invisibilities across the river stones
The invisibilities dance to music only you can hear
emanating from your empty shell

No comments:

Post a Comment