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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Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Once they begin to think about it

 

March 23, 1998  (I was 53)

 

Once they begin to think about it

all the poets know

the simple common images

make the strongest symbols

 

and they write about the dog bark

the rain and whistle of train in the dark

the brush of the cat against the pane

and a walk in the park to keep them sane

 

Once they feel the pattern of the scheme

and understand the stream of consciousness

is no more than the unconsciousness of dream

the image is greater than the theme

 

Making the boat emerge from the fog

is not figuring the because

but merely saying it does

What drives the boat is its chugging monologue

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