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, September 11, 2019

septememoriam


September 11, 2006  (I was 61)

       septememoriam
National mourning is precisely ritualistic
Those in public employ practice eulogy
The tone is refined the voice restrained
yet resolute  Their demeanor is somber
Beyond the honesty of empathy
they are personally involved
the official voice of sincerity
the declaration of determination
the assurance that none were lost in vain
In sacrifice we find strength
to endure and the will to move on
Years later the immediate survivors
test the flexibility of scar tissue
as they work to reform mis-shapen lives
and clear a path a day through wilderness
no nation has learned to tame
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