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!

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Addressing Abe Lincoln in 1975

 

February 12, 1975  (I was 30)

 

Addressing Abe Lincoln in 1975

Abe Lincoln

tall father in the stone chair

America’s comforting conscience

these hundred years

nothing left of you is merely real

We have come to understand your solitude

we have grieved

we have become war weary

we have lost faith

the captain a lost shadow in the man

We sit before the new world stage

with vague memories of other theaters

other characters other meanings

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