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!

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

I taught in the same public school for thirty-seven years


from this week in September, 2016  (I was 71)

I taught in the same public school for thirty-seven years.
I started there when I was twenty-one and left at fifty-eight.
I took an early buy out.
Most students loved me, most colleagues respected me,
the administration kept me on.
No one served the school for a longer tenure.
When I left I think they named an exit after me.
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1 comment:

  1. alldogs1September 9, 2019 at 7:02 PM

    I was one of your students! Thanks! Hopkins Jr. High 1972-73. Dylan & sitting out on the lawn listening to guitar. A friend shared that she reached out to you when she started teaching 8th grade & you were very helpful. Thank-you for teaching me to appreciate words wherever we find them.

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