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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Wednesday, December 26, 2018

The devalued photo


December 26, 2008  (I was 62)

The devalued photo
on the two-inch screen
taken two seconds ago
shows a tropical butterfly
in a tropical forest exhibit
at the aquarium
The photo snapper
looks at the photo
a foot in front of their eyes
their finger still on the trigger
ready for another shot
while the butterfly
still jiggles like a puppet
in the leaves of the mangrove

Our photographs used to fit
in a single oversized family album
with an extravagant cover
deteriorating from useful love
across three generations
looked at studied
again and again
They were history
now we have blips on a chip
They never leave the camera
just a confirmation
that what we actually saw
is virtually still there
more proliferate images
than moments left in our lives
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