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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Sunday, September 8, 2019

Substance and Form


September 8, 2010  (I was 65)

Substance and Form
without thought
water around a rock
with thought
the idea of water around a rock
the why of right path or left
inclination and resistance
consequence or insignificance

without thought
fire consumes wood
with thought
calculations of combustion
the weight of the ash
the intensity of light
the substance of smoke

without thought
being existence
with thought
notions of nothing
before and after
truth and misconception
creation and creator

In the night but not in the dark
things called to reality linger
like expectations
as if waiting were the thing
revelations never promised
ideas that never needed thought
stillnesses that move
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