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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Saturday, July 27, 2019

The fingers of the student masseuse seek pain


July 27, 2006  (I was 61)

The fingers of the student masseuse seek pain
knotted muscle and impinged nerve
damages that offer opportunity
to practice crafts of applied pressure
Ripples radiate relaxation
from troubled spots in time
to my deep breaths that drown
shallow thoughts
Not only obvious issues of recent stress
more subtle mysteries of the tissue
send a message from her hands to her breath
She utters huh… before her brain can think it
then ratchet sounds in my hip and thigh
respond before I can remember
that slip on wet grass years ago
striding into a Frisbee throw
to impress upon young students
that I was now too old
She is good she brings back memories
back that made the wrong move moving books
shoulders blocked out of balance
during a high school football game
ankle cracked while running a trail
pain in mouth and neck from oral excavations
to remove wisdom and worse troubles
brought on by too much jawing
With studied precision she worked
my physical history to remind me
no pain is entirely forgotten
but our endurance is considerable.
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