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, November 16, 2018

If it was a test


from this week in November, 2010  (I was 66)

If it was a test
I tried to do my best
just like all the rest
but if I had to guess of it
I’d say I made a mess of it

I always saw the jest
that gave tears their zest
When the bird left the nest
I took flight and headed west with it
where I guess I made a mess of it

Indistinct dreams are lost
when the pair of dice is tossed
Got symbols and signals crossed
and slogged through the cess of it
after I made a mess of it

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