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!

Monday, January 31, 2022

Rome and Florence

 

January 31, 1999  (I was 54)

 

Rome and Florence

tourist stuffed and lined with street vendors

seem to be stifled by their own antiquity

Past greatness is their main business

There is a pervasive awareness

the cities will never be great

as they once were

Ancient glory is the stock in trade

And the exchange for the daily hard sell

earns dollars, yen, francs, marks and pounds

The art and architecture are rented to foreigners

The demand is great

Much modern time is spent for minute moments

in remnant ruins preserved in snapshots

mounted in personal albums

and stored on shelves in homes around the world

Traditional homage and tribute paid and recorded

testimonials of pilgrimage purchased

reproductions of relics

both pagan and Christian

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