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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Thursday, May 2, 2019

Shave long enough and what stares back


May 2, 2010 (I was 65)

Shave long enough and what stares back
from the mirror
is the reverse of what stared back as a kid
The halo replaced by faded dimness
Once pink cheekbones of apprehensive promise
now nearly pierce their tired drape of skin
Lips then willing to try on smiles
adhere to a crooked-stick bent line
Windows that let me deep into the house
are etched and opaque both sides of the glass
There is inside and there is outside
But the shared side that made me stare so long
requires a sense of balance I no longer have
an ability to project as well as reflect
The ability to make an audience believe
in spite of all that’s happened
it will turn out all right in the end

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