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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Thursday, September 23, 2021

Older vultures know

 

September 23, 1998  (I was 53)

 

Older vultures know

the invisible adversary;

lack of will makes the mountain,

and the updraft

once so exhilarating

brings fatigue of oxygen deprivation.

Missing wing feathers

destabilize flight;

beauty now,

a struggle for efficiency,

for continuity of thought,

physical resolve

against the strength of gravity,

shoulder tugging neck burning

weakness of heart.

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