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 23, 2020

This Junior High School

 

from this week in September, 1979  (I was 34)

 

         This Junior High School

Affluence swings around the parking lot

and rocks to a halt in the circular drive

Her brow is wrinkled in the sun

Her head is balanced in one hand

whose arm angles at the elbow

to rest upon the window edge

She opens a door across the car lane

Books and kids spill over plush upholstery

They slam the door and she beeps impatience

at the pedestrians and their children

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