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!

Friday, October 30, 2020

from Harangutan

 

October 30, 1994  (I was 49) 

 

      from Harangutan

Young paleontologists spend four

months in the southern Sahara recovering

dinosaur bones of previously unknown species;

stories of predators and victims’ cases reopened

eons beyond the statutes of limitation.

Young historians working hard to become history,

elated to be a footnote, potentially a chapter.

The energy of adrenaline dims memory

of double fortnight jeep caravans

across treacherous sands more vast than

a capitalist nation and with threats as real.

Persistence brings home the bones;

the clever young scientists vow

this is only the beginning.

 

HALLOWEEN TREAT!   johnkallio.com

Go to AUDIO page, Listen to my rendition of

Aquainted With The Night  by Robert Frost 

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