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!

Friday, October 8, 2021

from bad to worth

 

October 8, 1972  (I was 27)

 

         from bad to worth

The gold standard doesn’t work for me

I haven’t got any gold

Measure my worth by the ounce

I’ll leave your scale pan cold

Take your book and count my faith

my candle wick is short

If you find the flame insubstantial

how will you hold the smoke

If you’ve got a definition

you could mark my deeds

But for that you’d probably find

you’ve only listed my needs

What can I say to get love into the sonnet

All you have is earth and man walking on it

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