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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Friday, September 4, 2020

That Man’s Attitude

 

September 4, 1975  (I was 30)

 

         That Man’s Attitude

Frost’s person in the snow should

Have said to hell with keeping,

Caught there in impeccable mood

Between frozen promise and promising wood.

 

The dream called for sleeping,

The little horse made it clear-

Hard edge of light and shadow creeping,

Silent bell of awareness sweeping.

 

Better the seen than the seer,

Said this looker through snow’s mirror

Stretched at length to show what’s near

Through the blizzard to warmer fear.

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