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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Monday, May 10, 2021

Behind the screen

 

May 10, 2009  (I was 64)

 

Behind the screen:

         the embroidered image is reversed

         on the silken Japanese landscape

         muted sheen of a silent pond

         miso and sushi

Behind the screen:

         spatters from the surgeon’s cut

         the nurse practices

         deadpan bedpan humor

Behind the screen:

         the puppeteer pulls the strings 

         shadow puppets are cast

         giants and dwarfs

         the deferential fool falls dead

         stabbed in the abdomen

Behind the screen:

         the drama ends

         a dusty backstage

         the door leads to the alley

Behind the screen:

         the priest hears sins

         wizardry is revealed

         in charlatan platitudes

         anonymity is ensured

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