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!

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Religions lay away days of the year

 

March 17, 2014  (I was 69)

 

Religions lay away days of the year

to commemorate their saints and saintly events

Governments for their leaders and victories

Families honor their comings and goings

In this way we give meaning to each day

just in case there is nothing happening now

 

Of course there is a now worthy of note

To recognize it is merely to hold it like a flower

Hold it like the breath between breaths

Let its bouquet inspire a complexity

to which master vintners can only dream

It is a fragrance and taste that touches

an idea that embraces all my ideas

and registers them in the moment that is present

That recognition is ever available and always enough

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