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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Tuesday, January 26, 2021

After a period of time people become afraid

 

January 26, 2012  (I was 67)

 

After a period of time people become afraid

to open storage units they pay for

month after month for years

beyond the worth of anything inside

The loss in value to our past

may be the root of that fear

To open to nothing worth keeping

is too great a recognition of failure

not in what we did or what we collected

but in recognition there was a time

we should have thrown it all out and started over

Now it still needs to be done years later

Month after month we pay to keep that door shut

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