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, March 21, 2022

At an eddy of the Merced River in Yosemite

 

March 21, 2013  (I was 68)     

 

At an eddy of the Merced River in Yosemite

creations of light occupy the river bottom

but they are not bright they are darknesses

that run along the illuminated stones

Squiggles of parallel worm squirms

move shoreward or spin toward center stream

across a bed where no ripples go

Water beetle forms skate on stones where no bug treads

Round black holes swell and disappear

as perhaps they do in space

Projected shadows of surface whirlpools

as are the other illusions

silhouettes of nearly invisible movement on its skin

when one great element touches another

 

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