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!

Sunday, October 11, 2020

My answers to literary questions

 

from this week in October, 1991   (I was 46)

 

         My answers to literary questions*

 

Tobias Wolfe:  Do I get a kiss?   

     Sure, the kiss means so much less than a negative response

Harper Lee :  Can you get it all in?       

     I don’t know, it’s a very small mind

William Saroyan:  What do you intend to do, escape?

     Escape is the artistry of necessity

Mark Twain:  What did you find?

     Something you would never look for

Greg Sarris:  Do you want me to sing?

     Yes if you know that song I wrote

Kurt Vonnegut Jr.:  What will the right time look like?

     It will look like inevitability

W.P. Kinsella:  You don’t even know what you done back there do you?

     I may not know what I done, but I knew enough to leave

Nikos Kazantzakis:  Why so tight-fisted?

     Don’t want anyone to read my palm

Robert S. DeRopp:  What is the greatest thing you can experience?

     I’ll let you know when it happens

Jonathan Winters:  What are you afraid of Johnny?

     If she goes I’ll never figure any of it out

Greek Mythology:  Why not fly near the sun?

     It’s Icky.

                  *All questions taken from text by the authors

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