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, November 26, 2021

Sui Shan Mai practices acupressure massage

 

from this week 2014  (I was 70)

 

Sui Shan Mai practices acupressure massage

At Zen Wellness center he is called Tommy

to make it easier for American clients to remember.

Even without his name they would remember the massage.

His technique accentuates the pressure.

Finding points in the body where pain resides

he ignites the fire in which healing hides.

He encircles the spot where nerve and muscle knot.

With sparks from his fingers

and the heat of his hands

he makes the ache dissipate.

He opens rusted channels of energy

and my breath like a blacksmith's bellows

blows out across the flame.

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