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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Friday, October 22, 2021

north boy

 

October 22, 1966  (I was 21)

 

         north boy

Remote was the lake

and forest of pine.

A dull boy in the dust

from an open pit mine

knew Bohunks and Finns

and Dago Red wine.

It was little of books

that he knew but he’d take

three-two beer with his friends

beneath the trees to the lake

where they’d drink and discuss

the great lives that they’d make.

Education’s slow breath

engendered reserve

a dislike for his life

of un-sophisticate verve.

And he has yet to discern

the use it served.

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