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.


Comments Welcome!

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Yesterday I climbed the hill


May 19, 1971  (I was 26)

Yesterday I climbed the hill
and found myself
communicating with
the transcendental truth

I came to understand
that being one
also meant that I could not know what one was

And that one way to not be one
was to alter consciousness
and then I could not be sure I was really being
more than one
let alone all

I came to think also
that guilt once recognized
was not useful
Sin has already been died for

and when I questioned what to do
I was told to do what I do when feeling true
That was what was required

I knew that if there was a time I forgot that
I would be told again
in a voice both gentle and subtle

No comments:

Post a Comment