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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Sunday, October 21, 2018

Been waitin’ there’s a delay


October 21, 2006  (I was 61)

Been waitin’ there’s a delay
Expected arrival before yesterday
Expected very little and not exactly what
I suppose it’s supposed to be
I’ll take what I can get
but ain’t lookin’ for naught
Have always known nothing’s free
Try to stay out of debt
Hope to receive what it is I bought

Get somethin’ and it gets you
Own it’s what you got to do
Find a place to keep it and put it where
you can get used to using it
Let it grow to be a help
on a shelf beneath the stair
Ownership no excusing it
whimper a guilt repent a whelp
Give what you can and buy what you dare

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