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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Monday, October 12, 2020

A lecturing professor of sensory perception

 

From this week in October 2017  (I was 72)

 

A lecturing professor of sensory perception

mentioned parenthetically he experienced

a synesthetic response to the scent of eucalyptus

associating it with a meditative state of relaxation

I feel a kinship to that recognition 

Today I began my walk under eucalyptus trees

broke an oily leaf to release the scent

reaffirming the mind-settling impression

further awakening other olfactory sensations

present in each breath as I strolled near other trees 

mown grass musky bark and moldy ground cover

Crisp breeze pulled clouds over East Bay hills

smelling like October

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