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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Saturday, March 6, 2021

Lady Lazarus

 

March 6, 1972  (I was 27)

 

Lady Lazarus

now you have winked your word in stone

What was it you wanted

Wasn’t it in the cadaver room

you first learned it did not matter

 

Oh you methodically raked

the ashes of Hitler’s Jews

but for you it was through before that

through when the first lipless smile

turned to say hello

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