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, December 18, 2019

XMAS ‘66


December 18, 1966  (I was 22)

   XMAS ‘66
Sidewalk Santas
Accordion’s din
Salvation pot
To put dollars in

Headless bundles
Go by on the street
A nigger-man
Old, blind, dog at his feet

“Christ” utters one
“What is worse than to be
An old nigger-man
Who can’t even see?”

Reflecting on this
I barely heard the old man
“What is worse?
To be a young one who can”
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