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, July 31, 2019

I’ve lost some of the prolific solitude


July 31, 2007  (I was 62)

I’ve lost some of the prolific solitude
the Island has formerly imbued
the slow breath of summer surf
cautious steps on wet stones to Akaka Falls
to cast intent on flower and fern
and darkening damp deeper view
where from insect rhythms and volcanic drums
inspired lava flows onto the page

I’ve made the invitations
cleared the runway and opened the door
become a bus driver and tour guide
a distributor of discount coupons
purveyor of geography and revisionist history
turned love of place into a place others love
left tart tropical fruit in the sun
to taint and over-ripen until
only hovering bugs can enjoy it

I have not found a way
to dissipate the rush or stall of traffic
to point out the off-ramps that lead
to the back roads of the right side of the brain
to the calm of the hinayana harbor
where each small boat drifts on its own quiet current
toward the mahayana cruise ship of common purpose

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