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, November 20, 2019

Cats in the carnival game to be toppled


from this week in 2018  (I was 74)

Cats in the carnival game to be toppled
off their fence by baseballs thrown
by rubes three for a quarter  Three cats
upset to win a stuffed bear your choice
of plushy colors hung about the tented concession
Cats so easily tumbled by tosses
casually pitched by the pitchman yeowling
“Three pussies down and you pluck the one
your girlfriend wants to cuddle”
You plunk down enough quarters to buy a bear
before she leads you out of there empty-handed
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