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, November 18, 2018

Poi Boy


November 18, 2015  (I was 71)

                        Poi Boy
Morgan Toledo farms kalo in Waipio Valley
he and his family crew (it’s taro to you)
In watery fields they plant the shoots
nurture the leaves that broaden in the sun
as the roots swell in the sodden soil
They harvest bulbs bigger than grapefruits
From each they trim five new buds
then scrub and chop the dense tubers
They’ve mechanized to a mechanical crusher
eliminating the tedious pounding
Brother Henry tends to the mashing straining
mushing bagging and labeling by hand
manhandles maintenance of the new machine
Lavender paste with almost no waste
The demand is far greater than
five thousand pounds produced each week
Morgan Toledo has plans to expand
five times the plants next season
from newly cleared fields to nourish the industry
Locals complain fresh poi is five dollars a pound
When they think about it they pay it
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